Ukrainian forces inspect inventory of looted assets after territorial recovery… ‘Stealing history’
The British newspaper The Times reported on the 28th (local time) that Russia had looted the cultural heritage of museums and art galleries in the occupied Kherson region of Ukraine at the end of October.
According to reports, Russia took about 10,000 of the museum’s 14,000-piece collection just before the region was retaken, not including large-scale works that are difficult to transport.
Across the street from the Historical Museum, artifacts including a gold necklace from the Scythian era and a Damascus knife belonging to the king of Bukhara were relocated on a large scale, and even from the library, archives of the 19th century Kherson newspapers were looted.
The Ukrainian army, which retook the Kherson region about two and a half weeks ago, is investigating Russia’s looting of cultural heritage.
However, the whereabouts of the stolen artifacts or artwork are not secret, and photos showing the scene of the paintings being unloaded at the Tabrida Central Museum in Crimea are being openly posted on social media, the Times reported. .
A Ukrainian officer charged with investigating the looting said: “Russia is trying to justify it by protecting cultural heritage, but it is stealing our history.”
The Times reported that Russia’s obvious looting of cultural heritage in the Kherson region shows Russia’s attitude towards Ukraine and the sympathy of pro-Russian residents of the Kherson region.
Conflicts are said to have arisen between pro-Russian and anti-Russian staff in museums and art galleries in the region even before the Russian invasion.
The director of the Kherson Regional History Museum, who studied history at St. Petersburg University in Russia, was an ardent pro-Russian figure who greeted the occupying forces with a bouquet of flowers when the Russian army entered Kherson in March last year and held an exhibition commemorating Russian Victory Day in May.
An employee who was fired while working at the museum said, “About half of the 80 employees, including the museum director, were pro-Russian” and that pro-Ukrainian employees either quit or were fired.
The director of the museum, a Ukrainian nationalist, on the other hand, fled to the capital Kiiu without setting up an exhibition commemorating the victory at the request of the Russian army, much less providing a catalog of archival works, but a former employee who had been fired in the past catalog returned and handed over, said an archivist.
/yunhap news
