works of art evacuated from kyiv under military escort to be sheltered and exhibited at the Louvre Museum

These are exceptional works that visitors will discover in a small specially equipped room in the Louvre Museum in Paris, from Wednesday June 14. Five of the very rare Byzantine icons to have survived the centuries, which come from the Khanenko Museum in kyiv, Ukraine. There are only about ten left in the world.

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“Among these five icons, there are four which are the first testimonies of the art of the icon”, explains Maximilien Durand, director of the arts department of Byzantium. “They come from the monastery of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai (Egypt). They are painted with encaustic, that is to say with wax on wood and they date from the 6th century or the beginning of the 7th century”, he details. The fifth dates from the end of the 13th or the beginning of the 14th century. Its particularity is that it is in micro-mosaic and its original frame is a goldsmith’s jewel.

“Bringing works out of a country at war is a particularly complex operation.”

Maximilian Durand

franceinfo

The Khanenko Museum also evacuated eleven other works of art. Icons and Italian primitives, works on wood which are stored in the reserves of the Louvre. All arrived last month after several days of road travel. “They left the Khanenko Museum on May 10 to arrive at the Louvre on May 15, passing through Poland and Germany, under military escort, so it was a large-scale operation that required a lot of caution, discretion and care too, emphasizes Maximilien Durand.

Works hidden in secret reserves before arriving at the Louvre

An essential operation for Olga Apenko Kurovets, curator at the Khanenko Museum and currently project manager at the Louvre. If the works had already left the museum for secret storage, they were not preserved because the operation had started in winter and the storage conditions were really difficult.”We thought we had to get the icons out of Sinai because they need temperature and humidity stability.” she says. Power outages caused by “attacks on power plants” made conservation complicated. The decision was difficult to make, but it was imposed in view of the stakes, according to the Ukrainian curator, for whom “it’s not just Ukrainian heritage but world heritage”.

“Of course, we are a little sad not to have them in kyiv at the moment, but we are also very relieved.”

Olga Apenko Kurovets, curator at the Khanenko Museum

at franceinfo

“What’s heartbreaking is why they had to leave,” says Olga Apenko Kurovets. The works received at the Louvre will remain there as long as the war lasts. The exhibition of the five Byzantine icons begins on Wednesday June 14 and will continue until November 6.