Ukraine Says Cultural Artifacts Stolen by Russians Emerging on Black Market

Artifacts of cultural value stolen by Russian troops from Ukraine have surfaced on the international black market, according to a Telegram post by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO).

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kremlin forces have engaged in widescale looting of cultural heritage in occupied territories where hundreds of artifacts have been stolen.

To try and find them, the PGO set up a specialized unit that, in close cooperation with the FBI, has now managed to track them down.

Posting on the social media app, Ukraine's Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin, said: “In addition to the systematic destruction of cultural heritage, Russia is committing another crime – the theft of cultural values.

“These artifacts, stolen from our museums and archaeological sites, are now appearing on the international black market.

“We already have enough evidence to initiate new criminal proceedings regarding these crimes.”

Referring to the special PGO unit, Kostin added: “This unit is not only engaged in investigating cases of cultural heritage destruction due to shelling but also in cases where our cultural heritage is being illegally sold abroad.”

The Prosecutor General’s Office did not specify which items had been identified on the black market.

In March, the Kherson Art Museum identified 100 paintings that were allegedly looted by Russian forces, in addition to nearly 15,000 other cultural objects that have been taken amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.

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Of those 100 pieces, 99 ended up at the Central Museum in Crimea, a peninsula on the Black Sea that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.