The massive attack on Moscow on the night of May 23 to 24 caused significant damage to several Ukrainian cultural sites.
Le plus ancien musée de Kiev fermé ”indefinitelyé”. On Monday, the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU) was forced to pause its cultural activity after being hit by Russian strikes on the night of May 23 to 24. According to the local press, this was the most massive air attack since the start of the war. Some 90 missiles were fired at the capital, including a nuclear-capable “Orechnik” which caused the deaths of four people. 600 drones were also deployed.
Moscow targeted military infrastructure. But its offensive ultimately hit neighborhoods where civilians live, including Mykhaila Hrushevskoho Street, where NAMU is located. Quoted byThe Arts Journalthe Ukrainian Ministry of Culture has recorded numerous damages in the museum. The windows of the building were blown out. The windows have come loose from the walls. Pieces of plaster in many exhibition rooms have cracked. The 40,000 works in the collection, which extend from the 12the century to the 20e century, were however spared.
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Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, NAMU has shelved all of the works initially exhibited in the main galleries. The institution has kept its permanent rooms empty and today hosts simple conferences or temporary exhibitions. Part of the collection has been loaned to the four corners of the world, including sixty works to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, which opened In the Eye of the Storm, an exhibition dedicated to Ukrainian modernism.
For two years, NAMU has benefited from restoration aid from the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Zones (ALIPH), financially supported by the European Union. In 2022, this same agency allocated funds to the museum so that it could digitize its archives and obtain security equipment.
526 cultural sites damaged since 2022
Although it suffered the most significant damage, NAMU was not the only cultural institution to have been affected by the massive attack on May 24. Moscow targeted the National Chernobyl Museum which had barely reopened after eighteen months of restoration, but also the National Philharmonic, the kyiv Small Opera, the Yaroslav the Wise National Library, the Shevchenko Literature Institute and the Ukrainian House cultural center.
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In total, the four years of war caused the destruction of 526 cultural sites. UNESCO measured the cost of repairs at some 3.8 billion euros. kyiv is the fifth most affected city, behind Donetsk, Odessa, Kherson and Kharkiv. This worrying situation was discussed in the Council of Ministers, which chose last February to transfer all Ukrainian collections located less than 50 kilometers from the front line.
