The Kherson Art Museum, emptied in 2022

On 31 October 2022, in the occupied city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, people began to load trucks and buses outside the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Kherson Regional Art Museum. Over about four days, up to 40 people took works out of the building: soldiers, officials and art specialists. Museum staff and witnesses told The Art Newspaper and Human Rights Watch that the works were poorly packed. Kherson police opened a criminal case on 3 November.

The museum opened in 1978 and took the name of the painter Oleksiy Shovkunenko in 1981. Its collection, from the 17th to the 20th century, was mostly paintings, with graphics, icons, and some sculpture and ceramics. It had been in storage since October 2021 for a building renovation. Russian forces held Kherson from 2 March to 11 November 2022. The museum’s former director told The Art Newspaper that a Russian-appointed director, Natalia Desiatova, took charge in July 2022.

Where the works went is confirmed. On 10 November 2022 the director of the Central Museum of Taurida in Simferopol, Crimea, told The Moscow Times that he had been instructed to keep the works for “temporary storage” until they went back to the “rightful owner”. Human Rights Watch verified photographs taken inside that museum, including a Georgy Petrov painting from the Kherson catalogue. The Russian side calls the removal an evacuation for safekeeping. Ukraine calls it looting. Human Rights Watch said in December 2022 that the pillage of the museum is a war crime.

How many works were taken is not settled. The museum’s deputy director told Human Rights Watch that about 10,000 of about 13,500 works were removed. The museum’s director told PBS that the collection held 14,000 items, and in 2024 told The Art Newspaper that more than 10,000 were taken. CURIA Lab, a research group, cites a museum figure of more than 11,000 of about 14,000. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General gives 10,223 exhibits. On the Russian side, the Simferopol director has said about 10,000, and the occupation culture official Artem Lagoyskiy 12,000. The Ukrainian military’s National Resistance Center reported nearly 15,000 objects from the museum and other venues, a combined figure. The Art Newspaper doubts that a regional museum held so many paintings. It says some items may be drawings, prints and coins.

Few of the works are identified. The museum finds them in photographs from the Simferopol museum and matches them by image or inventory number. Its counts of identified works were 109 in July 2024 and at least 128 in October 2024. In June 2026 the figure was more than 130, and on 16 September 2026 the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture’s museum portal gave almost 150. CURIA Lab checked 101 of the individual identifications and found independent support for 25. No independent inspection is reported.

In January 2026 Ukraine’s Prosecutor General served notices of suspicion on two people. They are Desiatova and Artem Lahoiskyi, the occupation deputy minister of culture for Kherson Oblast. The suspicion is a violation of the laws and customs of war. The prosecutor’s statement says Lahoiskyi was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in 2025, but the case behind that sentence is not described. Neither has been tried. In January 2025 the Kyiv Independent named a Black Sea Fleet officer, the city commandant, and a Crimean culture ministry official who ran the move. Neither has a reported court status.

On 12 October 2026 the museum said that the occupation authorities print images of its stolen paintings on electricity bills in occupied Kherson Oblast, with notes that, the museum says, distort history. The collection has not been returned.