Ukraine’s state register adds 11 remarkable pieces from four domestic museums to National Cultural Heritage list

Kazymyr Malevych was born in Kyiv. His father is Polish, and his mother is Ukrainian, from Poltava. He is known as the first artist to depict the Holodomor in Ukraine with his painting "Where the sickle and hammer, there is death and famine".

When Kazymyr Malevych was arrested, he personally wrote "Ukrainian" under the "nationality" column. As a result, prominent museums worldwide now recognize him as a Ukrainian artist.

Also, from the Kharkiv Art Museum collection, the painting by Illia Riepin, "The Zaporizhzhia Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan," was entered into the State Register.

The artist was captivated by the history of the Zaporozhian Sich, writing that "nowhere in the world has anyone experienced the same sense of freedom, equality, and unity as within the Zaporozhian Sich."

For almost 20 years, he worked on two versions of paintings dedicated to the Zaporozhians, expedited the cities of settlement of immigrants from the Sich, and persistently searched for the descendants of the creators of Ukrainian glory.

Illia Riepin, the renowned master painter, was born in Ukraine. He acquired his initial artistic training through painting icons, which he later applied in many Ukrainian churches. He had a deep love for his homeland and was a devoted patriot.

At his wish, Riepin was laid to rest on his personal property beside a modest hill known as "Chuhuiivska Hora," a tribute to his hometown in Ukraine.

The Kharkiv Historical Museum, named after M.F. Sumtsov, has recently added the 1707 Aprakos Gospel, printed by the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, to the State Register of Important Artifacts.

The Gospel is a unique printing masterpiece, an original copy of a rare, illustrated Ukrainian Cyrillic old print in large format, and one of the most outstanding projects in the history of Ukrainian book publishing before the 19th century.

For reference:

The Expert Fund Commission of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine is a permanent advisory and consultative body established to provide recommendations and proposals on issues of accounting and storage of museum objects and museum collections, objects of museum value, and the inclusion of unique museum objects in the State Register of National Cultural Heritage. The Commission includes museum specialists from all over Ukraine.

It should be noted that the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee, at its 19th session, which is taking place in the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion, officially included the Ukrainian "Program for the Protection of the Kobzar-Lyrnyk Tradition" in the Register of Good Practices for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

UNESCO also recently recognized the Ukrainian art of Easter egg painting as a cultural heritage of humanity and included it in the list of intangible heritage objects.