Kherson museum identifies 3 more paintings stolen by Russia

This was reported on the Facebook page of the Kherson Art Museum.

Employees of the Kherson Art Museum analyzed a photograph containing a list of items stolen by Russian forces during the occupation. This allowed them to identify three additional graphic works that are now illegally held in temporarily occupied Simferopol.

The photo was taken on April 1, 2023, at the Central Museum of Tavrida during the signing of a fake agreement on the storage of stolen property in Crimea.

Among the stolen items is the 1960 etching "Portrait of Soshenko" by Vasyl Kasiyan.

“People's Artist of the USSR, founder of the school of Ukrainian graphics, Vasyl Kasiyan became famous not only for his illustrations to the works of Ukrainian classics. Among about 10,000 engravings, etchings, posters, and illustrations by the master, there are many portraits of the artist's contemporaries. One of these is a stolen etching depicting a graying elderly woman - a doctor Oleksandra Soshenko-Maziukevych, Kasiyan indicated that she was the granddaughter of the artist Ivan Soshenko, a friend of Taras Shevchenko,” the museum said.

The second identified work is "Park" (1968), created with pencil and charcoal on paper by artist Ivan Hopkal. This marks the third graphic work by this Kherson painter to be identified among those stolen by Russia.

“The assumption that there would be new discoveries came true, the occupiers stole almost two dozen works by the Kherson master of the older generation,” the museum emphasized.

Another work that the museum managed to identify is “Still Life” from 1990 by Viktor Trubchaninov. 

“One of the best Ukrainian graphic artists of our time, Honored Artist of Ukraine Viktor Trubchaninov was born in Horlivka, Donetsk region, studied in Kyiv, and lives and works in Chernihiv. He is a prominent representative of Ukrainian postmodernism. By the way, the artist's works were used in the filming of the Hollywood movie The Thomas Crown Affair,” the museum added.

To date, 125 works of art have been identified as stolen by Russian-backed authorities from the Kherson Art Museum in 2022. In total, Russia has illegally exported 10,000 museum exhibits.

Out of the 125 identified works, 124 are currently in the occupied Crimea, housed in the Simferopol Central Museum of Tavrida. The exact location of one remaining work is unknown, but there is confirmation from the occupiers that it is in their possession.