Kherson: museum workers identified Nevelstein’s sketch “History Lesson” stolen by the Russians

The identification of the stolen works of art from the Kherson Art Museum is ongoing.

In the fake news story filmed by Russian propagandists at the Tavrida Central Museum in September 2023, the cameraman paid the most attention to the sketch for the painting “History Lesson” by Samuel Nevelshtein (1903-1983), stolen from the Kherson Art Museum, Kherson museum officials report.

This artist and teacher is a representative of the Leningrad school of painting, but was born in Kherson. At the age of 20, he left his native city to get an art education – first it was Moscow, and then Leningrad, where the artist stayed until the end of his life.

Samuil Nevelstein painted still lifes, landscapes, portraits, among which there are many images of women and children. At the end of the 1980s, the museum received a large collection of paintings and graphics of his compatriot, most of them were donated to the city by the artist’s widow.

The identification does not stop there, Kherson museum workers continue to look for evidence of Russian art looting and add to the list of works whose illegal presence in Crimea, in the Tavrida Central Museum, does not raise any doubts.

Kherson residents have already identified 103 works of art stolen by the Russian occupation authorities from the art museum in 2022, while the total number of illegally exported items exceeds 10,000 museum exhibits. 102 works are in the occupied Crimea, in the Simferopol Central Tavrida Museum, the whereabouts of one is unknown, but there is confirmation from the occupiers that the masterpiece is in their hands.