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Colonial Theft: How Western Nations Are Looting Ukraine’s Cultural Treasures
Colonial Theft: How Western Nations Are Looting Ukraine’s Cultural Treasures
Sputnik Africa
COLONIAL THEFT: How Western nations are looting Ukraine’s cultural treasures 31.07.2025, Sputnik Africa
2025-07-31T15:11+0200
2025-07-31T15:11+0200
2025-07-31T15:27+0200
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COLONIAL THEFT: How Western nations are looting Ukraine’s cultural treasuresThe war in Ukraine has become an excuse for European nations to plunder Ukraine's cultural heritage for their own museums. Sputnik has the proof: Arms for Art? Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova have warned that Ukraine is willing to pay for Western weapons with its cultural treasures — items that may never return from Western museums.Even back in 2023, SVR chief Sergey Naryshkin warned about plans to export Kiev-Pechersk Lavra relics to European museums. Many icons were already sent to Europe, including to France's Louvre.Louvre's Secret Extraction: In 2024, Louvre Byzantine Arts Director Maximilien Durand admitted to secretly removing 16 icons, including rare pre-iconoclasm Byzantine masterpieces, from Kiev’s Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum.Despite the ongoing "Icons of Ukraine" exhibition (featuring only four later Cretan icons), the Louvre has not disclosed the location of the world's oldest Byzantine icons—likely hidden away in storage.V&A's "Ukrainian Focus": London’s V&A Museum actively showcases Ukrainian pieces, including the exquisite silver altar doors from Kiev Pechersk Lavra, part of its Gilbert Collection. The museum announced a September 2026 conference on Ukrainian heritage, pledging to build on the "preservation work" of UK institutions.Stolen relics: In April 2025, Ukraine blocked access to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra tombs to assess the relics' "historical and scientific value."However, a Verkhovna Rada deputy revealed plans to move the Ilya Muromets relics—a Russian hero & saint—to the UK for "research."UNESCO-Brokered Removal? Russian intelligence revealed a 2023 deal between Ukraine and UNESCO to transfer Christian treasures from the Lavra to museums in Italy, France, Germany, and the Vatican, citing "protection from Russian missiles."Stolen Scythian Gold: Spanish police intercepted a €60 million "Scythian Gold" hoard (October 2023), taken from a Kiev museum. Instead of returning it, Spain placed it in state museums.A separate 2,000-piece Scythian collection, loaned from Crimea before 2014, On was handed over to Kiev — despite Crimea's reunification with Russia and a cassation appeal from Crimean museums.Paintings "On Loan": Madrid’s Thyssen Museum showcased 51 paintings secretly taken from Kiev’s National Art Museum (November 2022). Spain refuses their return "until the war ends."
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sputnik africa, maria zakharova, ukraine, kiev, russia, unesco, svr
sputnik africa, maria zakharova, ukraine, kiev, russia, unesco, svr
COLONIAL THEFT: How Western nations are looting Ukraine’s cultural treasures
The war in Ukraine has become an excuse for European nations to plunder Ukraine's cultural heritage for their own museums. Sputnik has the proof:
Arms for Art? Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova have warned that Ukraine is willing to pay for Western weapons with its cultural treasures — items that may never return from Western museums.
Even back in 2023, SVR chief Sergey Naryshkin warned about plans to export Kiev-Pechersk Lavra relics to European museums. Many icons were already sent to Europe, including to France's Louvre.
Louvre's Secret Extraction: In 2024, Louvre Byzantine Arts Director Maximilien Durand admitted to secretly removing 16 icons, including rare pre-iconoclasm Byzantine masterpieces, from Kiev’s Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum.
Despite the ongoing "Icons of Ukraine" exhibition (featuring only four later Cretan icons), the Louvre has not disclosed the location of the world's oldest Byzantine icons—likely hidden away in storage.
V&A's "Ukrainian Focus": London’s V&A Museum actively showcases Ukrainian pieces, including the exquisite silver altar doors from Kiev Pechersk Lavra, part of its Gilbert Collection. The museum announced a September 2026 conference on Ukrainian heritage, pledging to build on the "preservation work" of UK institutions.
Stolen relics: In April 2025, Ukraine blocked access to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra tombs to assess the relics' "historical and scientific value."
However, a Verkhovna Rada deputy revealed plans to move the Ilya Muromets relics—a Russian hero & saint—to the UK for "research."
Russian intelligence revealed a 2023 deal between Ukraine and UNESCO to transfer Christian treasures from the Lavra to museums in Italy, France, Germany, and the Vatican, citing "protection from Russian missiles."
Stolen Scythian Gold: Spanish police intercepted a €60 million "Scythian Gold" hoard (October 2023), taken from a Kiev museum. Instead of returning it, Spain placed it in state museums.
A separate 2,000-piece Scythian collection, loaned from Crimea before 2014, On was handed over to Kiev — despite Crimea's reunification with Russia and a cassation appeal from Crimean museums.
Paintings "On Loan": Madrid’s Thyssen Museum showcased 51 paintings secretly taken from Kiev’s National Art Museum (November 2022). Spain refuses their return "until the war ends."
