Ministry of Culture: 453,500 museum objects evacuated due to war, about 35,000 missing

12:28, 04.07.2024 1 min read

The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has reported that due to the war, 453,541 museum items have been evacuated from Ukrainian museums, and about 35,000 are officially listed as missing, said Deputy Minister of Culture for Digital Development, Digital Transformations, and Digitalization Anastasia Bondar.

"To date, 453,541 museum items have been evacuated," Bondar said at the international conference "Protecting Cultural Heritage and Counteracting Cultural Erasure in Armed Conflict: New Challenges and Ukraine's Experience" on Thursday in Kyiv.

According to her, as of 2014, Ukraine had 12 million museum objects that were part of the state museum fund, of which 1.7 million are now located in temporarily occupied territories. The deputy minister added that 90 museums and museum repositories remain under occupation.

"We currently have about 35,000 museum objects officially listed as missing. However, it should be understood that investigative actions and evidence gathering take some time, so these figures will increase," Bondar added.