A Russian military officer and three Russian-appointed officials from occupied Crimea illegally removed more than 33,000 historical artifacts and artworks from two museums in the Ukrainian city Kherson in the fall of 2022, the Kyiv Independent reported Thursday, calling it the largest museum theft in Europe since World War II.
The looting was carried out while Russian forces were fleeing a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
A journalist working for the Kyiv Independent posed as a Russian television producer and investigator to identify local collaborators who helped Russian troops with the looting. Through the investigation, it was discovered that Russian officer and head of communications of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Dmitry Lipov, who served as the city’s commandant during the city’s occupation, secured the collections during the government-sanctioned removal and personally sealed the trucks transporting the stolen items.
Sergey Patrushev, who was appointed by Russian authorities to lead the museum department of the Crimean Ministry of Culture, moved paintings from the Kherson Art Museum to Crimea.
During the theft, two Russian-appointed directors of the Crimean museums, Tauric Chersonese, and the Museum of Defense of Sevastopol, Elena Morozova and Mikhail Smorodkin respectively, selected objects from the Kherson local history museum’s collection to be taken.
The illegal removal of collections from Kherson to Crimea was also overseen by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
Further details are includes in the Kyiv Independent‘s documentary “Curated Theft.”
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