Over 150 stolen Russian artifacts from the Kherson Regional Art Museum have been identified, according to the prosecutor's office.
Currently, more than 150 stolen items from the A. Shovkunenko Kherson Regional Art Museum have been identified as taken by Russian occupiers. There are also reports of the sale of archaeological artifacts on the black market, which were looted from temporarily occupied territories following the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion. The United States has returned to Ukraine a number of archaeological artifacts from various historical periods that were seized at customs. This information was provided to the journalist by the UNN from the Office of the Prosecutor General in response to an inquiry.
The Office of the Prosecutor General states that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, under the procedural guidance of prosecutors from the specialized Department of the Office of the Prosecutor General, investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine have been conducting pre-trial investigations in several criminal cases related to the looting of cultural heritage sites.
Among these are museums in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, the A. Shovkunenko Kherson Regional Art Museum, the Kherson Regional Local History Museum, the Melitopol City Local History Museum, and the Berdyansk Art Museum named after I. Brodsky, from which tens of thousands of museum exhibits have been stolen.
The Prosecutor General's Office notes that due to the looting of museums by representatives of the aggressor state, as well as the theft of primary documents and electronic storage devices that accounted for all museum exhibits, it is currently impossible to determine the total number and list of stolen items.
It is also reported that alongside this, there are facts of the sale of archaeological items on the black market, which were looted from temporarily occupied territories after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation into Ukraine.
Supplement
In October 2024, it was reported that from 6 museum institutions in 5 de-occupied regions of Ukraine, 34,872 museum items from the state portion of the Museum Fund of Ukraine were stolen. The actual return of cultural values may take years or even decades.