Russian forces retreating from Kherson and surrounding areas have stolen around 15,000 exhibits from the region, the Ukrainian military's National Resistance Center reported.
The center said that the Russian soldiers had robbed the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Kherson Art Museum among others. The museum’s collection includes religious paintings of the 17th and early 20th centuries, Ukrainian art of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and works of contemporary artists, according to the center.
Four trucks with stolen art arrived in Simferopol, a city in occupied Crimea, according to the center.
The center said that Russian soldiers also looted local residents' homes, stealing various home appliances.
Earlier on Nov. 5, the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Kherson Art Museum said that Russian forces and collaborators stole “everything they saw, everything they could reach,” without properly packaging the works for transporting while retreating from the city.
The Kherson Oblast Police opened an investigation into the looting of the museum as part of a series of ongoing investigations into Russian war crimes in the oblast.
Ukraine liberated Kherson on Nov. 11, following Russia's retreat from the strategically important regional capital.
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