Berlin Art Gallery unveils 60 paintings temporarily evacuated from Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art
The grand opening of the exhibition titled "From Odesa to Berlin. European Painting of the 16th–19th Centuries," the exposition of which includes 60 paintings from the collection of Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, alongside works from Berlin's art collections, took place on January 23 at the Berlin Art Gallery Gemäldegalerie.
According to the website of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, the ceremony was attended by Head of the department Mykola Tochytsky; Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier; Federal Commissioner of the German Government for Culture and the Media, State Minister Claudia Roth; President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Hermann Partzinger and Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Oleksiy Makeyev. The project is being implemented under Steinmeier's patronage and with Roth's support.
In his speech, Steinmeier said Russia's war of aggression is also a war against Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian identity. He noted the significance of the exhibits from Odesa museum, which were saved from Russian attacks and transported to Berlin. He called for ongoing support for Ukraine in the fight for its culture and expressed hope for the paintings' eventual return to an independent Ukraine.
Tochytsky said Ukrainian culture is an integral part of European heritage and called the patronage of the exhibition of masterpieces from Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art an important step in the development of cultural dialogue between Ukrainians and Germans.
"Joint cultural events help the German audience to better understand Ukrainian culture, see its vulnerability amid Russian aggression and understand why it is so important to protect it. The Russians can destroy the museum and the building, but they cannot erase cultural memory," the minister said.
The Culture Ministry said that after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, staff from Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art evacuated the most valuable paintings to safety. In September 2023, some 74 works of art were delivered to the German capital, and in February 2024, about a dozen paintings became part of an exhibition at an art gallery in Berlin.
Now visitors will have the opportunity to see another 60 paintings from Odesa museum. Among them are works by a representative of the Florentine school Francesco Granacci, a master of etching and an outstanding artist from the Golden Age of Dutch painting Ruland Savery, as well as German landscape painter Andreas Achenbach.
The exhibition at Berlin Art Gallery will last until June 22, 2025.