More than 1,500 cultural and art valuables from Ukraine have been moved to Lithuania since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.
That’s according to Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT, Ukrinform reports.
Paintings by Maria Prymachenko, one of Ukraine’s most famous folk artists, are currently undergoing restoration. Negotiations are also underway to bring back 15th-century wooden altars from the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kyiv.
Jurate Senvaitiene, director of the Pranas Gudynas Conservation Center, said none of the art pieces were pulled from ruins or were damaged during the war. Most of them were brought to Lithuania from western Ukraine where they were evacuated from frontline regions. Art valuables from museums in Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa and other cities also arrived in Vilnius.
Some 100 works by Prymachenko have been brought to Lithuania so far, and most of them are on display at the Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum in Vilnius, while 15 of the most damaged works are still on the tables of the specialists at the Pranas Gudynas Conservation Center.
Since the February 2022 invasion, specialists of the Gudynas Conservation Center have inspected 1,500 works from Ukraine, determined their condition, prepared for exhibitions and long-term storage and technologically researched and restored a large part of them.