'Everything that their grabbing hands reached': Russia has been accused of increasing the pace of its looting of Ukrainian art and treasure after the contents of a major museum in Kherson were loaded into trucks and a school bus
The Ukrainian authorities and international bodies have warned of an acceleration in Russian appropriation of Ukraine’s cultural treasures following Vladimir Putin’s decree in September annexing the Kherson and neighouring Zaporizhzhia regions to Moscow. The small print of the edict contained a provision allowing Russia to “evacuate” items of cultural significance.
“We are not even talking about a delicate attitude towards old rarities. The paintings were not packed in a special way for transportation but wrapped in some kind of rag.” In a terse statement, the Centre for National Resistance, a Ukrainian government body monitoring activity in Russian-occupied parts of the country, believes it is probable the artworks have now been transferred out of Ukraine.
In a statement, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture said: “Mass removal of cultural valuables from the territory of Ukraine by the Russian occupiers will be comparable to the looting of museums during the Second World War and should be qualified accordingly.” In Melitopol, staff at the Museum of Local History sought to hide hundreds of treasures, including an extraordinary “Hun diadem” or jewelled tiara dating from the era of Attila the Hun, as Kremlin forces entered the city. Despite weeks of searches, the Russians failed to find the artefacts before finally discovering their location in a secret basement of the museum. The whereabouts of Melitopol’s treasures is currently unknown.
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