The Russian military, when leaving Kherson, took out about 15 thousand exhibits, four trucks with the loot arrived in Simferopol. This was reported by the "Center of National Resistance", which was created by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to support and coordinate everyone who wants to fight for the liberation of Ukraine from Russian troops. Toilets and household appliances were also stolen.
According to the Center, which refers to information from the Ukrainian underground, the Russians removed all the property from the Kherson Art Museum named after Alexei Shovkunenko. The museum also has a branch in New Kakhovka. Among the collections of the museum fund in the permanent exhibition of the museum are iconography of the 17th – early 20th centuries, Ukrainian art of the 2nd half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. Works by contemporary artists are also presented.
In October, the Russian Izvestia published an article with the headline “Collected collections: the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation will be replenished with values worth a billion.” The author of the article noted that the masterpieces of the main Russian painters and icons of the 17th century are kept in the Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. The article says that the museum fund of the Russian Federation will include over 44 thousand works of art with a total value of more than a billion rubles.
“The four leading art museums in the annexed territories store paintings by Russian artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, including masterpieces by Aivazovsky, Kuindzhi, Shishkin and other masters, ancient Russian icons and Western painting. The process of registering them as state property has already started,” Izvestia writes.
