On the Day of Historical and Cultural Monuments, we address the challenges of preserving cultural heritage during wartime.

According to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, over the four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, 1,685 cultural heritage sites have been destroyed or damaged, along with 2,483 cultural infrastructure facilities, of which 507 have been completely destroyed. The looting of Ukrainian museums has become a routine practice for the occupying country. Russia has stolen 35,482 museum artefacts. However, the scale of potential losses is significantly larger, as more than 1.7 million museum items remain in the temporarily occupied territories.

The plundering of historical monuments in Crimea, which has been under Russian occupation for twelve years, is of particular concern. The monitoring group of the NGO “Crimean Institute for Strategic Studies” reports that Russian authorities have issued more than 2,500 permits for archaeological work in Crimea over the past 11 years. Moreover, since 2022, the Russian army has effectively received carte blanche for uncontrolled excavations in the occupied territories, including Crimea.

Returning the stolen cultural treasures will be an enormous challenge for Ukraine. Yet we already have a powerful success story. In 2023, after a decade-long legal battle, Ukraine scored a historic victory: the Crimean artefacts exhibited in the Netherlands were returned to Ukraine rather than to Russian-controlled Crimea. The Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine has taken 565 priceless items from four Crimean museums into temporary safekeeping until the peninsula is de-occupied: the National Preserve “Chersonesus Taurica” (Sevastopol), the Central Museum of Taurida (Simferopol), the Bakhchysarai Historical and Cultural Preserve, and the Kerch Historical and Archaeological Preserve. Among them are exquisite late Scythian and Sarmatian gold jewellery, ancient sculptures, ceramics, and even 2,000-year-old Chinese lacquer boxes.

The exhibition “Treasures of Crimea. Return” does more than simply display these rescued antiquities — it powerfully highlights Russia’s ongoing plunder of the peninsula.

We invite you to visit the exhibition at the Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine from Tuesday  to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:45 (ticket office until 17:00). Admission to the exhibition is with a museum entrance ticket: 200 UAH, concessionary (for schoolchildren, students, pensioners) – 100 UAH.

Museum address: Kyiv, 21 Mazepy Street, Building 12 (territory of the National Preserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”), Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine. Entrance to the preserve is through the main gate.