“Russia appropriates the Ukrainian artistic heritage by” russing “as soon as it is possible”

“Ukraine never existed”repeat to the Envi Putin and Russian ideologues. Their version of history is not purely rhetorical: it inspires a campaign aimed at systematically erasing the secular cultural identity of Ukraine. The UNESCO thus counted, on April 16, 494 sites destroyed or damaged since February 24, 2022, including 149 religious buildings, 257 historic buildings, 33 monuments (including those commemorating the Shoah), 18 libraries, 34 museums and 2 archaeological sites.

However, Moscow’s objective is not only destruction. It is also a question of appropriating the Ukrainian heritage, by “russing” it as soon as it is possible. From the occupation of Crimea, in February 2014, a systematic policy of redefinition of cultural identity is implemented. Thousands of works of art are transferred from Crimean Museums to Russian institutions.

In 2016, the Tretiakov gallery hosts a large exhibition of the XIX marine painter^e century Ivan Aïvazovski (1817-1900): out of the 120 works on display, 38 come from Crimean collections. However, despite the protests of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, great European museums continued to collaborate with the Tretiakov gallery to the large -scale invasion of 2022. Similarly, the Archaeological Site of Cherèse, yet listed as World Heritage by UNESCO, was meticulously dismantled, plundered and altered to install, in July 2024, a museum complex including a new “Crimea and the Novorossia [Nouvelle Russie] »justifying the Russian claims of “Reconquer” Oriental and southern regions of Ukraine.

Since February 2022, looting has intensified in the newly occupied territories. Hundreds of thousands of works of art and Ukrainian cultural objects were moved to Crimea or Russia. In Kherson, curators linked to pro-Kremlin historic companies, supervised by Federal Security Service (FSB), Russian internal intelligence, guided Russian forces in the looting of the Oleksiy Shovkunenko museum and the local history museum. More than 13,000 objects have been stolen. In Marioupol, the Russian soldiers seized major works by Arkhip Kouïndji (1841-2010) and Ivan Aïvazovski. As for the collection of “Gold of the Scythians” preserved at the Museum of Local History in Melitopol, it has simply disappeared.

You have 65.33% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.