More than 1,500 cultural and art valuables from Ukraine have been moved to Lithuania since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. Many of the pieces of art have been studied and restored, as well as exhibited by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art.
Paintings by Maria Prymachenko, one of Ukraine’s most famous folk artists, are currently undergoing restoration. Negotiations are also underway to bring back 15th century wooden altars from The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts Kyiv.
Some 100 works by Prymachenko have been brought to Lithuania so far, and most of them are on display at the Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum in Vilnius, while 15 of the most damaged works are still on the tables of the specialists at the Pranas Gudynas Conservation Center.
In October, the Lithuanian National Museum of Art and the Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius Support and Charity Fund launched a fundraising campaign for the restoration of the artist's works.
"They were stored at a museum in Zaporizhzhya. The city suffered terribly during the war, and some of the works were rescued and brought to Western Ukraine, and from there, we were able to bring them to Lithuania," Juratė Senvaitienė, director of the Pranas Gudynas Conservation Centre, told BNS.
"Before that, our restorer had to travel to Western Ukraine to inspect the works, assess their condition and decide whether they could be transported at all. Before that, we did not have much information about their condition. After examining the works and deciding that they were still transportable, the restorer got them ready for shipment," she explained.
Prymachenko is one of Ukraine's favorite artists. Her image features on the country's banknotes, and UNESCO declared 2009 the year of Prymachenko.
So far, Vilnius has received art valuables from museums in Lviv, Kyiv, Odessa and elsewhere.
The head of the Lithuanian restoration team said that none of the art pieces were pulled from ruins or were damaged during the war. Most of them were brought to Lithuania from western Ukraine where they were evacuated from frontline regions.
Since the February 2022 invasion, specialists of the Gudynas Conservation Center have inspected 1,500 works from Ukraine, determined their condition, prepared for exhibitions and long-term storage and technologically researched and restored a large part of them.
"This is a lot, given that we do not stop our planned work and everything that is planned has to be done and all the commitments to other Lithuanian and foreign museums are being fulfilled, without delay," Senvaitienė said.
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