Former director of Mariupol museum suspected of handing over stolen paintings to Russian occupation authorities

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.

According to the prosecutor's office, the former director took five paintings by Hryhorii Kalmykov, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Ivan Aivazovsky 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. Ukraine has documented over 2,300 stolen objects since the start of the full-scale war.

More than 1,200 items were stolen from just the Oleksii Shovkunenko Kherson Regional Art Museum during Russia's occupation of the city.

The actual number of stolen objects may be much higher and 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 exhibits up until February 2022.

Since launching its full-scale invasion, Russia has not only seized Ukrainian art but also waged a campaign of destruction against the country's cultural heritage. According to data from the Culture Ministry as of May, nearly 1,800 cultural heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed by Russia.