Thousands of Artworks Stolen From Kherson Art Museum

Ukraine is working with Interpol to recover thousands of cultural artefacts looted by Russian forces during the full-scale invasion, focusing on the documented losses from the Kherson Art Museum.

When Alina Dotsenko returned to the Kherson Art Museum after Ukrainian forces retook the city from Russian forces in late 2022, she found thousands of artworks had vanished. “I walked in and saw empty storage rooms, empty shelves. My legs gave way, and I just sat down by the wall, like a child,” the museum director said.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, the museum held more than 14,000 works in a collection described as “ranging from America to Japan.” As Russian forces retreated, they loaded much of the collection onto trucks and took it to Russian-annexed Crimea, according to Dotsenko and video filmed by residents.

The fate of nearly 10,000 pieces from the Kherson Art Museum remains unknown. Ukraine is raising international awareness about the looting as Russia seeks to return to the global cultural stage, including participation in the upcoming Venice Biennale.

Ukraine has stated that the Venice Biennale “must not become a stage for whitewashing the war crimes that Russia commits daily against the Ukrainian people and our cultural heritage.”

The Kherson case stands out as a rare documented instance of cultural looting because Dotsenko had begun photographing every item in the museum’s holdings years before the war, creating a digital archive. When Russian forces occupied Kherson, she hid the hard drives containing this record. After Ukrainian troops returned, she retrieved them.

Today, that archive forms the most detailed record of looted cultural property during the war, enabling prosecutors to work with Interpol to trace missing works and pursue those responsible. Across much of Ukraine, however, such documentation does not exist, and cultural losses can only be pursued in court if they can be proved item by item.

UNESCO has confirmed 476 cultural sites damaged in Ukraine, though Ukrainian experts say the actual number is significantly higher. The Kherson Art Museum alone lost over 10,000 pieces, now believed to be hidden in occupied Crimea.