The French organization demands excluding Russia with ICOM due to plundering Ukrainian museums
Public organization "For Ukraine, For their freedom and ours!» (Ukr. “For Ukraine, For their and our freedom!») called for exclusion of the Russian Federation from the International Council of Museums (ICOM). She initiated the petition, in which the Russian Museum membership and employees of Russian museums demand, involved in the export and looting of Ukrainian museum collections in the occupied territories.
Violation of international norms
Petition authors refer to the article 7.2 ICOM Ethics Code, According to which museum activity should be based on international law. Is stated, that participation in ICOM institutions and persons, which falsify, destroy or appropriate cultural heritage, is incompatible with these principles.
The French organization draws attention to, that despite the calls of several national committees, the process of exclusion of Russia with ICOM has not yet moved out of place.
Systemic theft of cultural heritage
Ukraine is already with 2022 The year actively informs the ICOM Executive Council about the illegal actions of Russian museums - members of the organization. The petition is emphasized, that Russia is not just destroying, And trying to assign the Ukrainian cultural heritage and expose it to Russification.
Such actions began in 2014 year after the annexation of Crimea. Thousands of exhibits were taken out of Crimean museums to. U 2016 The Tretyakov Gallery organized a large -scale exhibition of artist Ivan Aivazovsky, Using 38 works from Crimean collections. Despite that, Collaboration of the Great European Museums with the Russian side lasted to 2022 year.
Looting in the occupied territories
In July 2024 year UNESCO-OBJECT Chersonese was looted, And in his place opened propaganda “Crimea and Novorossiysk Museum”. From the Kherson museums were taken out above 13 Thousands of exhibits. In Mariupol, the Russian military captured the works of such artists, as Aristarchus Quinji and Ivan Aivazovsky. The collection disappeared from the Melitopol Museum of Local History “Scythian gold”.
Today is over 77 Ukrainian museum collections from the occupied regions are included in the State Catalog of the Museum Fund of, What is a direct violation of the Hague Convention 1954 the year on protection of cultural values during armed conflict.
Time is going, And justice is delayed
The petition is also indicated: Even if international law will eventually allow the stolen cultural values, Luddy processes can last for years. Meanwhile, Russian artdilers are already returning to international art fairs, in particular in the Dutch Maastrichti.
The extent of destruction fixed UNESCO
As of February 2025 UNESCO has documented the year 485 cases of destruction or damage to cultural sites in Ukraine as a result of Russian aggression. Among them:
149 religious structures
249 historic buildings
33 Monuments, including the Holocaust memorials
18 libraries
32 museums
2 Archaeological objects
