Odesa Fine Arts Museum resumes work after Russian attack – photo
The Odesa Fine Arts Museum, which was damaged by a Russian missile strike nearby on 6 November, has opened its ground floor to visitors.
Three exhibitions are available for viewing – paintings by Western Ukrainian modernist artists Margit and Roman Selskys, compositions by Boris Eisenberg, who was killed in action, and wooden sculptures by Volodymyr Semkiv.
For now, only the ground floor of the museum will be open to visitors. A few weeks before the opening, one exhibition hall on the first floor is being prepared.
Quote: "Working for a month made us understand that there is a certain part of the museum that we can use as an exhibition space," explains the museum director, Kateryna Kulai.
The museum’s head says that in a month and a half, it was possible to carry out initial emergency work, fix shattered windows with sandwich panels and replace damaged doors. Restoration work was also done on the Selskys’ paintings, which were covered in dust or fell immediately after the missile strike.
UAH 10.5 million (US$283,783) are needed for the complete restoration of the museum. This amount is necessary for carrying out all stabilisation and emergency works. UNESCO and ALIPH, an international foundation that works to preserve museums during military conflicts, are ready to cover most of the costs.
Most of the money will be spent on stabilisation work in the building itself. The administrative building was the most affected by the rocket attack. There are several cracks on the walls that need to be patched to save the building from destruction.
In the future, the museum plans to work on exhibitions of works by modern artists. They conclude a contract with all those who want to exhibit there which takes the risks into account, the museum says.
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