Russian occupiers are looting Ukrainian museums and displaying objects in exhibitions in Russia. Ukrainian Defense Intelligence has released information about 14 individuals involved in the illegal appropriation and removal of cultural assets.
When Kherson was under Russian occupation, the invaders stole over 20,000 art objects. Here are a few paintings taken from the city's museums. See more of them.
Ukrainian Defense Intelligence has released information about 14 individuals involved in the illegal appropriation and removal of cultural assets.
Among them is a collaborator, the so-called Minister of Culture of Kherson Oblast, Artem Lagoyskyi, who directly organized the looting of Kherson museums during the city’s temporary occupation.
The theft of heritage: Potemkin and Kamianna Mohyla
In 2022, Lagoyskyi, together with a Russian Black Sea Fleet officer, Dmytrii Lipovyi, orchestrated the theft of the remains of Grigory Potemkin from St. Catherine’s Cathedral.
Additionally, Lagoyskyi co-organized the propaganda exhibition “Always New Kakhovka” in Moscow, where paintings by the Ukrainian artist A. S. Havzdynskyi, illegally taken from the Novokakhovka City Gallery, were displayed.
Ukraine's Defense Intelligence also reports Russian involvement in the seizure of the National Historical and Archaeological Reserve “Kamianna Mohyla”, its illegal inclusion in the “Khersones Tavriysky Museum-Reserve” in temporarily occupied Crimea, and the removal of exhibits under the guise of temporary exhibitions.
Kherson Art Museum: 80% of the collection stolen
When Russian troops withdrew from Kherson in October 2022, they looted the region’s two largest museums — the Shovkunenko Kherson Art Museum and the Regional Museum of Local History.
Russia destroys a third of the building of the local history museum in Kherson
At least 20,000 exhibits were taken, including one of the most valuable collections of Ukrainian art, 80% of which effectively disappeared.
