Russia-Ukraine War: Medieval monuments, priceless art, world heritage sites at risk of destruction

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has not only jeopardised human lives and physical infrastructure, but priceless cultural artefacts, works of art, and monuments.

Ukraine is home to several historical sites and heritage structures, while its museums house a vast array of Baroque and folk art.

ARTWORKS AT RISK

Thousands of Ukrainian museums have important works of Russian and Ukrainian art, artefacts from classical and Byzantine rule, and paintings by masters such as Francisco Goya, Giovanni Bellini, and Jacques-Louis David.

Kyiv’s Museum of Freedom has a collection of 4,000 objects recording Ukraine’s pro-democracy movement. The Odessa Fine Arts Museum has a collection of over 10,000 objects, including Ukrainian and Russian “orthodox icons”, that date to the 16th century — artists such as Myhailo Vrubel, Ivan Aivazovskyi, Mykola Reryh, Valentyn Sierov, Kostiantyn Somov, Zinaida Serebriakova, and Vasyl Kandynskyi.

The country is also home to seven world heritage sites, including the St Sophia Cathedral, one of the most-recognised landmarks in Kyiv, founded by the Kyivan Rus in the 12th century, and Kyiv Monastery of the Caves or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, an Eastern Orthodox Christian monastery founded in 1051.

The old quarter of Lviv, the western city, located about 70 km from the Polish border, is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Kharkiv, the country’s second-biggest city, already under heavy attack by Russia, houses a number of cathedrals, museums, and historic neighbourhoods.

LOST ALREADY

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted on February 28 that the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum on the northern edge of Kyiv was burned to the ground following a Russian assault. The museum was home to 25 paintings of celebrated Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko, known for her rhythmic strokes inspired by fairy tales and folk stories.

Prymachenko’s talent mesmerised the legendary Spanish master Pablo Picasso, who waxed lyrical about her works. Several countries have exhibited her works, some of which also appeared on Ukrainian stamps in the 1970s. UNESCO commemorated 2009 as the year of Prymachenko.

WHAT IS BEING DONE?

Overlooking the Dnipro River on the outskirts of Kyiv, the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War is already said to have moved important items from its collection to the building. Museum Director Fedir Androshchuk was quoted by the global arts organisation Getty Trust as saying that he and two colleagues were trying to protect the museum from looting or attack.

The Guardian reported that Androshchuk wrote to a Swedish academic that the museum was located in the middle of an area with a rich cultural heritage near three fine churches, but also near some possible targets such as the Ukrainian border forces and security service.

Androshchuk said museums in Zhytomyr in northwest Ukraine, Sumy in the northeast, Vinnytsia in west-central, and Chernihiv in the north had taken down and protected their main exhibitions, The Guardian reported.

The museum building in Vinnytsia is now used partly to house internally displaced people. Androshchuk has not yet heard of the museums being attacked or looted.

GLOBAL RESPONSE

The country’s scholars have warned of a cultural catastrophe, while Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko, in an appeal to UNESCO, has asked for Russia to be deprived of its status of a member and to take away the World Heritage Committee’s 45th session, scheduled for June, from Kazan.

In a statement, Getty Trust condemned Russia’s cultural atrocities in Ukraine.

The United States National Committee of the International Council of Museums said the conflict had taken lives, displaced thousands, and destabilised the international order. That it also seeks to destroy the heritage and access to the history of a nation abrogates the expectations of civil society and the treaty obligations of which the US, Ukraine, and Russia are signatories.

UNESCO noted that it was deeply concerned by the military operations and the escalation of violence. It called for respect for international humanitarian law, particularly the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two (1954 and 1999) Protocols, to prevent damage to cultural heritage.