Occupants stole most of the paintings by Kherson artist Shovkunenko from the museum

In the fall of 2022, Russians stole 147 paintings out of 156 works by Kherson artist Oleksii Shovkunenko, which were kept in the museum of the same name. Only nine works survived, of which one is kept in the museum.

This was reported on the museum's Facebook page.

The painting by Shovkunenko that remained in the museum is "Portrait of His Wife." In total, the occupiers stole more than 10,000 works by Ukrainian, Russian and European artists from the Kherson Art Museum. So far, the location of 106 stolen works has been identified. It is known that 105 of them are in occupied Crimea, and the whereabouts of one more painting are still in question.

"The looters did not get their hands on eight more graphic works by Shovkunenko because they were undergoing restoration," the museum wrote on its website.

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A portrait of the artist. AUTHOR: Yablonska N.N.

The staff of the Kherson Art Museum occasionally recognize the stolen paintings in the photos and videos of the Russian media. Just 2 weeks before the museum was robbed , Russian media reported that the museum fund of their country would be replenished with more than a billion rubles. In particular, it was noted that Russian art historians had examined 4 Ukrainian art museums, and the Kherson one was of the greatest value.

While cynically looting the Kherson Art Museum, the occupiers hastily took away everything they could find. Some paintings were damaged during transportation . Currently, the main task of the Kherson Art Museum staff is to preserve the building. Over the past year, the museum has suffered from enemy shelling three times. The collection of works that the occupiers failed to steal from the museum is now in a safe place.

Катерина Глушко