Russian troops looted 2,000 pieces of art from Mariupol museums, officials say

KYIV — Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have seized more than 2,000 pieces of art from the besieged port city of Mariupol and taken them to Russian-occupied Donetsk.

Mariupol city council wrote on Twitter that Russian forces have raided the three local museums, including the Kuindzhi Art Museum, since the start of the invasion.

“The occupiers `liberated' Mariupol from its historical and cultural heritage,” council wrote. “They stole and moved more than 2,000 unique exhibits from museums in Mariupol to Donetsk.”

Among the works taken was the Gospel of 1811 from the Venetian printing house for the Greeks of Mariupol, three works by 19th-century artist Arkhip Kuindzhi and others by famed Russian romantic painter Ivan Aivazovsky.

The Kuindzhi art museum, which is named for the Mariupol native, was badly damaged during a Russian airstrike on March 20, according to the Ukrainian Union of Artists.

The museum's three original works by Kuindzhi — Red Sunset, Elbrus and Autumn, Crimea — were not in the museum at the time of the March strike but had been moved to a secret location.

But last week, the director of another Mariupol museum, the Museum of Local History, handed the pictures over to Russian forces under duress, said Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol's mayor.

Looting of art treasures has a long and dishonourable history, stretching back to the campaigns of Greek, Persian and Roman armies in antiquity.

It was widespread in the Second World War as German forces stole masterpieces in occupied France, Poland and other countries, in addition to confiscating artwork owned by Jews.

Works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Chagall, Matisse and other masters ended in German hands. Restitution efforts continue as lost works come to light many decades later.