Employees of the Kherson Art Museum found the location of another painting stolen by the occupiers
Employees of the Kherson Art Museum identified a painting stolen by the occupation authorities of Kherson in 2022 in a news story by a Russian propaganda TV channel, the Museum informed in its Facebook post.
From the Kherson Art Museum Facebook post
According to the museum staff, the painting was recognised in a footage of a story filmed in Crimea a year ago, in September 2023. “But for a long time, we did not give information about it until we were finally sure that the identification error was excluded, and the portrait stolen by the occupiers from the Kherson Art Museum was taken to the Central Museum of Tavrida in Simferopol,” they explained in a statement.
The identified painting is a 1928 portrait of Vasyl Maks by artist Oleksandr Rusakov (1898-1952). The report states that this is the second work by Rusakov stolen from the Kherson Art Museum, which is known to be in Crimea.
“Portrait of Vasyl Maks” by Oleksandr Rusakov. From the Kherson Art Museum Facebook post
The museum staff pointed to 12 other previously identified paintings in the television footage in question. These are the works by Yaroslav Prokhazko (1886-1949) “View of Prague from a hilltop,” 1942, Danylo Dzevanovskyi (1916-2002) “Chrysanthemums,” 1953, Heorhiy Kurnakov (1887-1977) “Autumn Flowers,” 1966, Mykhailo Shaposhnikov (1909-1989) “Still Life. Peonies,” Heorhii Cherniavskyi (1924-1981) “Dalni Zelentsi Bay,” 1970, Tetiana Staroselska (1916-?) “Still Life ‘Song’,” Liudmyla Petrova (1923-1997) “Joy. Twentieth Century,” Vasyl Chornyi (1924-?) “Still Life with Samovar,” 1980, Anatolii Platonov (1927-2005) “Chufut-Kale. Bakhchisarai,” 1986, Lazar Styrmer (1922-2003) “Cactus,” 1989 and two works by Ivan Starenkov (1955-2010): “Green Day,” 1993 and “Tertsia,” 1996.
From the Kherson Art Museum Facebook post
In total, the museum staff found out the location of 126 works of art out of more than 10,000 stolen from the Kherson Art Museum by the Russian occupation authorities in 2022. They are now in the Central Museum of Tavrida in Simferopol in occupied Crimea. In addition, the Russians confirmed they held another work, but its location is unknown.
Oleksandr Rusakov was born in the Russian Orel province in a Jewish family of migrants from the Ukrainian city of Hlukhiv, but lived most of his life in Soviet Leningrad (now St Petersburg). The museum said that he was known as a landscape painter, but in his early years he was fond of the French school of painting. The portrait of Vasyl Maks, about whose life very little is known, belongs to this period of Rusakov’s oeuvre.
The city of Kherson was under the Russian occupation from early March to early November 2022. Retreating, Russian troops and the occupation administration took many cultural and historical treasures out of the city, including paintings from the Kherson Art Museum and part of the regional archive.