More than a thousand exhibits damaged in Kharkiv Art Museum

On the evening of June 14, Russia attacked the Kharkiv Art Museum with a Geran-2 UAV. Six people were injured in the attack, including a one-month-old girl. The impact damaged about a thousand objects, five of which were graphics from the Soviet period. Objects sent to the museum for storage were also damaged. The second floor and roof of the building were damaged – now they are closing the holes through which rain can pass. Most of the exhibits were damaged not because of the fire, but because of moisture from extinguishing the fire.

Currently, scientific and design documentation is being prepared in order to preserve the architectural monument built in 1912-1914.

“We have a project to build a shelter in the Kharkiv region. If it is implemented, the shelter will have the status of a civil defense facility and this will allow us to secure museum items without taking them outside the region. In particular, those museum items that are not subject to evacuation,” says Oleksandr Kostin, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration.

The estimated cost of this project is UAH 200 million – it has already passed an examination.

The most valuable museum exhibits were evacuated to safe regions back in 2022. According to the Cabinet of Ministers’ resolution, objects of global importance are evacuated first, objects of all-Ukrainian importance second, and local ones third. Only after that, the turn comes for other exhibits that remained in the museum.

More than 100 thousand museum items were evacuated in the Kharkiv region. The museums in Vovchansk, Kupyansk, and Izyum were completely evacuated.