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As an organization devoted to the integrity and preservation of art and other cultural objects, IFAR expresses its concern about the threat to human life and cultural heritage posed by the current Russian invasion of Ukraine and the indiscriminate targeting of civilian population centers. 

The Russian Federation is a state party – as is Ukraine – to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and, as such, has an obligation to be mindful of and protect the museums, monuments and heritage sites in Ukraine, a country which has 7 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Already, this has not been the case. On March 1, the Babyn (Babi) Yar Holocaust Memorial barely escaped damage or total destruction when a Russian missile aimed at a nearby radio tower damaged a Jewish cemetery next to the Memorial and killed 5 civilians.  The day before, on February 28, Russian forces burned down the Ivankiv Historical Museum, housing 25 works by the Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko. Early reports indicated that all were destroyed, but, thankfully, later reports suggest that many were saved. Also, as reported in the New York Times, Ukrainian monuments and at-risk sites have been mapped with satellite imagery by the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab in Virginia, but mapping alone will not save them. Staffs at Ukraine’s museums have been doing what they can to protect their collections and their own lives. The director of Odessa’s Fine Arts Museum told the Times that the museum staff was hiding in the basement during the fighting. But options to protect the art are limited given the risk of transporting objects to remote hiding places in the midst of fighting and thereby exposing them to missiles and air attacks.

The museums of Ukraine’s largest – and most-targeted – cities are rich in artistic treasures. As noted in a February 16, 2022 Wall Street Journal article by Konstantin Akinsha, the Museum of Historical Treasures in Kyiv, for example, is home to “about 56,000 objects”; its pride being “one of the finest collections of Scythian gold. . . . The National Museum Kyiv Art Gallery has an impressive collection of Russian art,” including “masterpieces by Repin and Mikhail Vrubel.” These are only some of the objects at risk in what virtually the entire world has decried as a senseless and unprovoked war.