The Louvre is storing 16 works of art, including precious Byzantine icons from Kyiv, to protect them from the war in Ukraine, President Laurence de Carre announced on Wednesday.

“Since the beginning of the war, we, like other important museum institutions, have been worried about how to support our Ukrainian colleagues. In the fall, faced with the intensity of the conflict, we decided on this rescue,” Laurents de Cars told AFP, confirming information from Le Monde newspaper, News.ro reported.

“It’s a small thing in the ocean of sadness and devastation, but it’s a symbol,” she added, realizing the importance of “preserving this millennia-old heritage in the heart of Europe and the need to pass it on.”

Among these works, the evacuation of which was managed by the world’s largest museum, there are five Byzantine icons from the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of the National Art Museum in Kyiv. They will be on public display from June 14 to November 6, AFP Laurens de Cars said.

Another 11 works, “one of the most iconic and fragile” of the Ukrainian museum, selected for scientific cooperation on the restoration of works from the Louvre, will be placed in warehouses, the Louvre clarified.

Hundreds of cultural objects of Ukraine suffered from the war

At the end of October 2022, Laurence de Carre was visited by a Ukrainian delegation, including the director of the Khanenko Museum, when UNESCO identified 240 war-torn sites. The cadastre of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine then reported on 468 damaged or destroyed cultural objects, including 35 museums.

The rocket fell at the beginning of October near the Khanenki museum, knocking out the windows. With the exception of large paintings, most of the artworks have been “moved into storage where they are subject to temperature fluctuations and interruptions, which worries our colleagues,” Lawrence de la Carce said.

The operation to save 16 selected works, financially supported by the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Zones, was officially registered during the visit to Ukraine by the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak in February, and the works were accompanied by the military. through Poland and Germany in early May.

The exhibition of Byzantine icons entitled “Aux origines de l’image sacrée” will herald the opening in 2027 of a new department of Byzantine art and Eastern Christianity.

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