Kherson museum workers identify three more paintings stolen by Russian occupiers

Kherson museum workers identified three more paintings that were stolen by the Russian invaders and taken to the temporarily occupied Crimea.

The Kherson Art Museum reports that Russian troops stole these works while occupying Ukraine's southern city of Kherson.

"The identification of the stolen works of art is ongoing," the statement reads.

For identification, the museum staff used a photo from Simferopol made by the occupiers, which included a list of stolen works. It was made on April 1, 2023, during the signing of the so-called "agreement" on storing stolen pieces in the Central Museum of Tavrida.

A few more works were excluded from the list, which is now 100% illegally located in the occupied Crimea. In particular, this is Ivan Hopkal's painting Park, 1959.

This is also the work of Mykhailo Chepyk, Paris. Boulevard Madeleine, 1967. The Ukrainian painter was known as a master of thematic paintings and landscapes. The stolen work belongs to Chepyk's well-known series with views of France, which the artist created after his creative trips abroad.

Another work is Yurii Balykov's Boats, 1979. According to the museum, the Ukrainian artist worked mainly in easel painting. He is known as a master of genre painting, a landscape painter, and a portraitist. The graphic work of the artist was identified among the stolen items.

Kherson museum workers, employees of the Kherson Art Museum named after Oleksii Shovkunenko, set out to identify stolen works of art that come up in Crimea.

Under the guise of the so-called "evacuation," the Russian occupiers have stolen more than 11,000 works of art from the museum.