HERSON Ihor Valentinovich almost bursts into tears when asked about the significance of the stolen art treasures for Ukraine. He is the deputy director of the Herson Regional Art Museum.
– The feeling is inconsolable and sad. How to live without national art? Our collection was one of the most important in the country. What can the children see now?
According to experts, Russia is trying to destroy Ukraine’s cultural heritage. At least thirty museums have been looted or destroyed in the occupied territories of Ukraine.
According to the Russian government, the goal of the war of aggression is to destroy Ukraine as an independent state.
Even animals taken from the zoo
According to the authorities, 15,000 art objects have been taken from Kherson alone. Among other things, libraries and the archaeological museum have been robbed. Statues have been taken from parks and animals were even taken from Hersonis Zoo.
One of the looted museums is the national art museum of Hersoni region. It is located in a magnificent building, the former city hall of Kherson.
The director of the museum says that the Russians came to the museum in trucks at the end of October. There were a large number of them, and the operation seemed well planned.
It took four days to empty the museum. During that time, the Russians took thousands of art objects.
– Fine art was the most valuable in this museum. They took Shabanov’s icons, national art from the 19th century… Everything.
Valentinovič says that the Russians carried out priceless art objects and threw them into trucks. They did not protect the paintings, at best they wrapped the paintings in blankets.
The art museum’s collections were in the basement because the museum is being renovated.
Ihor shows the empty shelves. Nothing remains except some heavy picture frames and sculptures.
– Apparently these were too heavy or took up too much space.
The Lenin boards were left
All Visual Arts were taken, except Vladimir Lenin presenting council tables.
– It shows how empty their ideology is.
Joseph Stalin the memory has been honored a lot recently in Russia. In Russian propaganda, the war of aggression is connected with the restoration of the Soviet Union.
Still, Ukrainian art was fine for the Russians, but propaganda works praising Lenin and the Soviet era were left behind.
Ukrainian authorities estimate that the Russians have emptied or destroyed about thirty museums in the occupied territories.
The lost objects are irreplaceable for Ukraine. There are objects from Ukraine’s prehistory to the present day.
Glass display cases were broken
On the other side of the street is the historical museum of the Herson region. That too was robbed.
The most valuable archaeological objects and, for example, historical weapons, were taken from the Hersonis National Museum.
Everything points to the fact that experts have been involved in emptying the museums, because it has always been possible to take the most valuable objects.
Looting museums is not about the exploits of individual soldiers.
According to experts, it is a deliberate state operation, the goal of which is the destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage.
– This is not about a soldier stuffing silverware into his backpack. This is something much, much bigger, said James Ratcliffe for the New York Times. Ratcliffe works for a British organization that tracks down stolen art.
The art stolen from this museum was apparently taken to the Russian-occupied Crimea to the Simferopol Art Museum.
Ihor cannot say what has happened since then. Are the art treasures still in Crimea or have they been taken to Russia?
– Russians call themselves liberators. True, they free us from all that we had. Once again. Why do they do that? I would think that the reasons must be sought above all in medicine, Ihor smiles.
The war continues in Kherson. Russia is firing on the city from the other side of the Dnipro River. Fragments have also hit the museum.