Ukrainian Museums Work to Safeguard Collections

Editors of ARTnews, February 25, 2022

Image:  The flag of Ukraine on display at the National Museum in Prague, in the Czech Republic, on Thursday. (Katerina Sulova / CTK via AP Images)

As fighting rages in Ukraine, museums across the country are working to safeguard their collections, the New York Times reports. Aleksandra Kovalchuk, the director of the Odesa Fine Arts Museum, told the paper via WhatsApp that staffers were “hiding” art in “the basement. Trying to arrange security. Barbed wire.” The organizers of the nation’s Venice Biennale pavilion, which is scheduled to open in April, said that they are not currently working on the project “due to the danger to our lives,” Artnet News reports. The star of that planned show, artist Pavlo Makov, told Artnet in another story that that he is currently sheltering with family in the city of Kharkiv. “I am not running from my home,” he said.