Occupiers robbed the Havdzynskyi picture gallery in Nova Kakhovka

The occupiers robbed the Albin Havdzynskyi Picture Gallery in the temporarily occupied city of Nova Kakhovka in Kherson Oblast after the "evacuation of the population" was announced due to a possible counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The information about the looting committed by Russians emerged on 1 November, as reported by the Nova Kakhovka City Hall on Facebook.

The City Hall states that the occupiers started to remove paintings, graphics and sculptures en masse.

 "This act of looting is a part of the continuous robbing of cultural, medical and other institutions of the city of Kherson and Kherson Oblast by the Russian occupiers after the occupying administration announced the evacuation of civilians due to a probable counter-offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine", explain the local authorities.

Volodymyr Kovalenko, the mayor of Nova Kakhovka, cited by Suspilne [the Ukrainian public broadcaster], confirmed this information:

"They are taking all the exhibits they can. A truck approached the gallery, and Russians started loading them. Locals saw this, but the occupiers did not let them come close. Over a thousand artworks were exhibited in the gallery; of these, 297 paintings were gifted to Nova Kakhovka by Albin Havdzynskyi, Honoured Artist of Ukraine", Kovalenko reported.

Due to the illegal export of objects of Ukrainian cultural heritage, the Executive Committee of the Nova Kakhovka City Hall is preparing to officially turn to law enforcement regarding looting by the occupiers.

The picture gallery, named after Albin Havdzynskyi, a Ukrainian landscape painter and master of genre painting, was founded on 4 November 1967 as an art department of the Kherson local history museum. The gallery’s holdings consisted of more than 1200 items, including a unique collection of 297 paintings and graphics by Havdzynskyi, the collection of etchings by Vasyl Myronenko, People’s Artist of Ukraine, and the collection of illustrations by Valentyn Lytvynenko, People’s Artist of Ukraine and others.

The gallery was named after Havdzynskyi in 2003. He is an Honoured Artist of Ukraine and an Honoured Resident of Nova Kakhovka.

"The gallery used to be one of the main places of interest in the city. The gallery funds artworks, mobile exhibitions, personal exhibitions of painters and artisans of the Kherson region and other regions of Ukraine, exhibitions of amateur artists, exhibitions of children’s art; meetings and creative evenings were held in the gallery", the Nova Kakhovka City Hall adds.

Background: The Russian occupiers have a history of robbing Ukrainian cultural institutions. For instance, they robbed the reserves of a museum in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, stealing even an ancient toilet.

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