On May 27 the exhibition “Kherson. Shovkunenko. Saved” will open at the National Museum “Kyiv Art Gallery”.
This was reported by the Kherson Art Museum.
The exhibition will present works by Ukrainian artist Oleksii Shovkunenko from the collection of the Kherson Art Museum that were saved after the museum was looted by Russian occupiers in 2022.
During the occupation of Kherson, Russian forces stole nearly 11,000 items from the art museum. Among them was almost the entire collection of works by Oleksii Shovkunenko, which numbered over 150 pieces.
“A lucky chance saved the portrait of the artist’s wife Oleksandra Vasylivna (1936): the painting miraculously survived, ‘hiding’ in the most remote corner of the storage behind a grate and a large tapestry”, – the post says.
Another eight graphic works survived because at the time of the full-scale invasion they were undergoing restoration in Kyiv.
Oleksii Shovkunenko – a native of Kherson, a watercolorist and portrait painter, the first artist from the Kherson region to receive the Shevchenko Prize.
The exhibition opening will take place on May 27 at 5:00 PM. It will be exhibited until July 26, 2026.
Earlier it became known how many exhibits the occupiers stole from the Kherson Regional Museum of Local Lore.