Former directors of Mariupol museum charged with transferring paintings worth 26 million hryvnias to Russia

The former director of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore was reported in absentia on suspicion of aiding the Russian occupiers in the illegal appropriation of valuable works of art from the funds of the Arkhip Kuindzhi Art Museum. These are five original paintings with a total value of over 26 million hryvnias. This was reported by the Prosecutor General’s Office on June 17.

According to the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the suspect had free access to the museum’s storage. The investigation believes that she illegally took possession of the paintings that were stored and exhibited at the Arkhip Kuindzhi Art Museum.

Law enforcement officers established that the woman first transported the paintings to her apartment. After that, according to the investigation, she reached an agreement with representatives of the occupation administration and personally handed over the cultural values ​​to them.

Among the stolen works was Ivan Aivazovsky’s painting “On the Shores of the Caucasus.” Also, according to the investigation, the suspect handed over to the occupiers Arkhip Kuindzhi’s paintings “Red Sunset”, “Autumn. Crimea” and “Elbrus”, as well as Grigory Kalmykov’s work “Kuindzhi Feeding Pigeons”.

As the investigators established, the paintings were later transported to the so-called “Donetsk Republican Art Museum”. After that, they were illegally entered into the Russian register of museum values.

Law enforcement officers believe that by such actions the suspect helped the occupation authorities illegally appropriate the cultural heritage of Mariupol. She was charged in absentia under Part 1 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – violation of the laws and customs of war.

In 2024, Ukrainian artifacts and exhibits stolen by Russian occupiers from museums and archaeological sites began to appear en masse on the international black market. At that time, it was recorded that from the Kherson and Donetsk regions alone, the invaders, with the help of local collaborators, took out tens of thousands of unique values, including original paintings by world-famous artists.