A collection of 18-century sculptures brought to the Palace of the Grand Dukes in Vilnius from Ukraine just before the war will not return to Lviv for now: the exhibition will remain on display in Lithuania before travelling to Latvia in June.
The international exhibition entitled The Mysticism of Baroque Sculpture: Johann Georg Pinsel and other 18th-century Lviv Masters was scheduled to end on Sunday, May 22, but has been extended for a week, Monika Petrulienė, the museum’s spokeswoman, has told BNS.
It was decided not to return the 20 valuable 18th century gilded wooden sculptures to the Borys Voznytsky National Art Gallery in Lviv until it is safe to do so.
According to Petrulienė, the sculptures will be moved to the Rundāle Palace Museum in Latvia in June and will remain on display there until autumn. Curators at the Dresden State Art Collections in Germany are interested in extending the exhibition tour in the autumn.
“The museum of the Palace of the Grand Dukes is in weekly contact with the staff of the Borys Voznytsky National Art Gallery in Lviv,” the spokeswoman said. “They are discussing when it will be safe to return the sculptures to Ukraine.”
“[Ukraine’s] major museums have not yet reopened, although smaller ones in safer areas are gradually reopening to visitors,” she added.
The sculptures arrived in Lithuania from Ukraine two weeks before Russia invaded the country.
More than 21,000 people have visited the exhibition in Vilnius.
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