The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has released information on 14 individuals involved in the theft of cultural valuables from the National Historical and Archaeological Reserve “Kamiana Mohyla,” the Novokakhovka Albin Havdzyinsky City Gallery, and museums in Kherson.
The Intelligence Agency reported this on Facebook.
Among the individuals listed in the “Stolen Heritage” section of the War&Sanctions portal is the collaborator and so-called “Minister of Culture of Kherson Region,” Artem Lahoyskyi, who was one of the organizers and direct perpetrators of the looting of Kherson museums during the temporary Russian occupation of the city.
In 2022, Lahoyskyi, together with Dmitry Lipov, an officer of the Russian Black Sea Fleet who at the time acted as the so-called “commandant” of Kherson, organized the theft of the remains of Hryhoriy Potemkin from the Catherine Cathedral.
Lahoyskyi also co-organized the propaganda exhibition “Always New Kakhovka” at the central office of Transneft in Moscow, which displayed paintings by Ukrainian artist A. Havdzyinsky, illegally taken from the Novokakhovka City Gallery.
Separately, the Intelligence Agency published information on individuals involved in the seizure of the National Historical and Archaeological Reserve “Kamiana Mohyla,” its illegal incorporation into the so-called “Khersones Taurica Museum-Reserve” in temporarily occupied Crimea, and the theft of museum exhibits under the cover of “temporary exhibitions.”
The Intelligence Agency reminds that for every crime committed against the Ukrainian people, their culture, and historical heritage, justice will be served.
