Former director of Mariupol museum accused of aiding in Russian theft of Ukraine's cultural heritage

The former director of Mariupol's local history museum has been notified in absentia of suspicion for transferring stolen paintings to Russian occupation authorities valued at around Hr 26.3 million (approximately $586,000), the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office reported on June 17.

Although the suspect is not named directly by prosecutors, Natalia Kapustnikova is the former head of the museum. She has been sanctioned by Ukraine, the European Union, Canada, Switzerland, and Japan since 2023.

According to the prosecutor's office, the former director took five paintings by Hryhorii Kalmykov (1873—1942), Arkhip Kuindzhi (1841-1910), Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) at the start of Russia's full-scale war. She first transported the paintings to her home before handing them over to Russian occupation authorities.

The paintings have since been unlawfully listed in the Russian Culture Ministry's register of museum valuables.

"In this way, the suspect facilitated the enemy's appropriation of unique works of art that were an inseparable part of Mariupol's cultural heritage," the prosecutor's office wrote.

Kuindzhi, born in Mariupol, was a famous landscape painter of Urum (Crimean Greek) origin and Kalmykov is widely considered to have been one of his most talented students.  Aivazovsky was born in Crimea to Armenian parents and is considered one of the greatest painters of marine art.

The theft of their work, so much of which exemplifies the southern Ukrainian landscape, is part of Russia's wider attack on Ukraine's cultural heritage. Ukrainian authorities documented that more than 1,200 items were stolen from the Oleksii Shovkunenko Kherson Regional Art Museum alone during Russia's occupation of the city.

The total number of objects stolen by Russia from across Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war is difficult to fully determine given the lack of access to Ukrainian territories still under occupation. As the prosecutor's office noted, the combined collections of Mariupol's local history and art museums contained about 60,000 items up until February 2022.

As part of its campaign to erase Ukrainian culture and history, Russia has also targeted for destruction whatever it hasn’t managed to steal. According to data collected as of May from the Culture Ministry, Russia has damaged or destroyed nearly 1,800 cultural heritage sites across Ukraine.