What cultural values are stolen by Russian invaders in Ukraine
For hundreds of years the Russians have been trying to take away our history and the XXI century was no exception. Since 2014, the occupiers have started stealing cultural values from Ukraine. They take them to the territory of the Russian Federation, transfer them to museums and private collections, and use Ukrainian art for propaganda purposes.
To date, hundreds of Ukrainian art objects are known to have been stolen since 2014. Among them are numerous pieces of jewellery, coins, crockery and wreckage, sculptures and paintings from different times.
The occupiers steal valuables not only from Ukrainian museums in the temporarily occupied territories, but also conduct illegal excavations of Ukrainian cultural heritage sites. Thus, the Russians in the jewellery, in particular earrings from dürbe with a plinth vault of 1271-1368 years. The jewellery was stolen in 2019 during illegal excavations on the territory of Crimea.
The Kherson Museum of Local History suffered significant losses at the hands of the occupants. The Russians stole from it, in particular, an antique marble sculpture of a lion from the middle of the 5th century BC, an Ionian painted amphora from the 6th century BC and many valuable paintings. The Russians appropriated paintings by such artists as Ivan Shulga, Mykola Pimonenko, Larisa Mandrykova, Oksana Pilipchuk and others.
In order to compile a complete list of stolen cultural property, the War and Art project has created a new section "Stolen Heritage". It is a register of 245 stolen Ukrainian objects. Its purpose is to help prevent illegal trade in art and antiquities that were stolen by Russian occupiers in Ukraine during the war.
The NAPC notes the importance of documenting and disseminating facts about the stolen objects, as this can play an important role in returning the valuables to Ukraine.