Among the various crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, in addition to the destruction of civilian infrastructure with missiles and rockets, bombings, and of course the violence and torture of civilians, there is also the extensive and systematic looting of some of the most important, prestigious and ancient cultural institutions of the country, and the theft of thousands of works of art. According to several experts, Russia is stealing works of art in quantities comparable to those stolen by the Nazis during World War II. During these months of war, Russia raided the museums of several eastern cities, including Kherson, Mariupol, Melitopol and Kakhovka. One of the biggest thefts was the one carried out last October at the Kherson Regional Art Museum. The Russians surrounded the museum, entered en masse, detached the paintings from the walls and stole objects from the display cases, to then hastily pack them in large sheets of cardboard and take them away. Alina Dotsenko, the director of the museum who had fled the country at the time, told the New York Times some eyewitness accounts, according to which Russian soldiers loaded and piled up paintings and works on their vehicles “as if it were garbage”. Today in the Kherson museum many display cases are completely empty. According to the Ukrainian prosecutors who are dealing with the stolen works are about 15 thousand. Also in Kherson, the Russians then took away bronze statues from the parks, stole books from an ancient scientific library and even stole the remains of the bones of Grigory Potemkin, the Russian leader considered the founder of both Kherson and Odessa.
via ruetir: Russians are carrying out biggest art raid since the Nazis