Ancient manuscripts, centuries-old icons or crafts… The International Council of Museums (ICOM) published this Thursday an “Emergency Red List of cultural assets in danger” in Ukraine, to fight against illicit trafficking, “amplified by the Russian invasion” .
With this list, ICOM hopes to serve as an effective reference for “the identification of looted and stolen cultural objects in Ukraine when they begin to circulate in the coming weeks, months and years,” it explains in a statement.
“Mass looting” at a Kherson museum
His initiative “comes at the right time in the fight against the illicit trafficking of Ukrainian cultural heritage, a phenomenon that has existed for a long time in the region and that has been amplified by the Russian invasion”, underlines this international network of professionals of museums, covering almost 140 countries.
“Indeed, recent reports about the mass looting of the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Art Museum in Kherson by Russian troops withdrawing from the city on November 11 demonstrate that this threat is present and carried out systematically,” it continues. the ICOM.
His list includes manuscripts dating from the 13th to the 19th centuries, ancient religious icons but also modern drawings and paintings, from the naive, avant-garde and socialist realism movements, as well as handicrafts, costumes and jewelry.
Many cultural sites damaged
Founded in 1946, ICOM collaborates with international organizations such as Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO) to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural heritage.
In Ukraine, the United Nations is using satellite imagery to monitor the destruction of property and cultural heritage caused by the Russian offensive. UNESCO, the UN agency responsible for Culture, had registered, as of the end of October, 207 damaged cultural sites since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.
These are 88 religious sites, 15 museums, 76 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 18 monuments and ten libraries.
Source: BFM TV
