Ukraine: "Russian troops have stolen artefacts from nearly 40 museums"

                         Missing from Melitopol?                        

Ukrainian officials say Russian troops have stolen artefacts from nearly 40 museums. They estimate that the looting and destruction of cultural sites has caused losses in the hundreds of millions of euros (Hanna Arhirova, ‘War crime’: Industrial-scale destruction of Ukraine culture' APNews October 9, 2022). A Hunnic golden tiara, inlaid with precious stones

is now vanished from the museum in Ukraine that housed it — perhaps, historians fear, forever. Russian troops carted away the priceless crown and a hoard of other treasures after capturing the Ukrainian city of Melitopol in February, museum authorities say. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its eighth month, is being accompanied by the destruction and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale, Ukrainian authorities say. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ukraine’s culture minister alleged that Russian soldiers helped themselves to artifacts in almost 40 Ukrainian museums. The looting and destruction of cultural sites has caused losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of euros (dollars), the minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, added. “The attitude of Russians toward Ukrainian culture heritage is a war crime,” he said. For the moment, Ukraine’s government and its Western backers supplying weapons are mostly focused on defeating Russia on the battlefield. But if and when peace returns, the preservation of Ukrainian collections of art, history and culture also will be vital, so survivors of the war can begin the next fight: rebuilding their lives.

To be honest, I had not taken note that this item had been in the Melitopol Museum of Local Lore and was missing. Earlier reports only dealt with the 198 Scythian gold items from the 1954 excavations in the Melitopol kurhan, only part of the assemblage, the rest being in Kyiv. The Hunnic diadem was discovered in March 1948 in a burial complex of the Hunnic period (1st half of 5th century AD), consisting of more than 90 items, in Kyziyarska Balka near Melitopol. It is made of gold plates decorated with amber, garnet, carnelian, granulation (gold balls) on a the bronze base.* It is one of the textbook examples of this class of object) [the diadem in this photo in this article is not the right one].

The article tries to argue for the model of 'targeted looting to destroy cultural identity' - which is certainly what Hitler's Nazis did in Poland in WW2. What is happening in Ukraine since Feb 24th looks more like simple trophy hunting - like what the Red Army took part in as they invaded Europe in 1944-5 filling the Hermitage and other Soviet museums with loot (some of which is still there).

I presume there is somewhere a list, though I have not found it, of those "forty museums" and the approximate nature of the objects taken. (Does this include areas occupied in 2014-Jan 2022 alongside items stolen since the present phase of the invasion?). The reason I ask is that Damaged cultural sites in Ukraine verified by UNESCO

As of 10 October, UNESCO has verified damage to 201 sites since 24 February – 86 religious sites, 13 museums, 37 historic buildings, 37 buildings dedicated to cultural activities, 18 monuments, 10 libraries.

* note to self: is it really amber? That would be quite significant, given what we know of the amber trade in the migration period...