Taking action to protect cultural heritage in Ukraine: ALIPH photo exhibition

Taking action to protect cultural heritage in Ukraine

Taking action to protect cultural heritage in Ukraine

Ukraine’s patrimony, rich in history, culture, and religious significance is in peril. The war has already damaged nearly three hundreds religious sites, monuments, museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions.

Since the first days of the conflict, ALIPH has been committed to support the Ukrainian people and cultural heritage professionals in their efforts to protect the unique heritage that forms part of their country’s identity and provides a source of wonder for all.

From March 2022 to early September 2023, ALIPH supported about 360 cultural institutions to help safeguard the collections of museums, libraries, and archives, to stabilize and protect historical buildings and sites, and to provide direct assistance to staff. Since the beginning of the war, this support has included financing the purchase or transport of protective and fire safety equipment. To help tackle the energy crisis, in early winter 2022, over 150 generators or power stations were acquired so cultural institutions could maintain their security and climate control systems. Today, ALIPH is planning for the upcoming winter to provide more of such equipment.

Eleven large artifact storage facilities have also been upgraded with ALIPH’s support, and four “heritage ambulances”—mobile laboratories to provide emergency restoration for cultural heritage—have been purchased and equipped.

ALIPH also launched projects to document, especially in 3D, dozens of monuments and sites, and, when feasible, stabilize monuments and historical houses damaged by the war.

Since March 2022, and with the support from the European Union, the Getty, and the Principality of Monaco, as well as its public and private members, ALIPH has disbursed USD 5.3 million to finance concrete projects on the ground.

ALIPH will remain at the side of the Ukrainian people and professionals for as long as the war lasts. This exhibition pays tribute to their exceptional commitment to protect their cultural heritage, part of our common humanity.

Above: Storage boxes containing collections from museums around Ukraine; Centre: Uman Museum of Local Lore, Cherkasy Oblast

Ukraine | Safeguarding collections

At the beginning of the war, museums, libraries, and archives around the country jumped into action to protect their collections. However, many cultural institutions did not have enough material to safeguard all their works.

Responding to requests from Ukrainian professionals and organizations, ALIPH transferred funds to purchase packing and storage materials and anti-fire equipment. The Foundation also financed and organized the transport of supplies, in particular, hundreds of wooden crates, from Austria, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

To date, ALIPH has financed the protection of over 180 collections from Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Izmail, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Donetsk, and many other cities. In addition, ALIPH funded the upgrade of eleven major storage sites to keep these collections from being damaged by humidity, especially during the winter.

Khanenko Museum, Kyiv

Safeguarding collections

The Khanenko Museum is a beautiful example of how art perseveres through turbulent history. Since its opening in 1918, the museum, named after its founders Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko, first survived the Bolshevik government and then Nazi looting during the Second World War. Today, the museum is home to one of the most important collections of European, Asian, and ancient art in Ukraine, including unique 6th- and 7th-century Byzantine icons from Sinai.

Since the outset of the war, ALIPH has been supporting Khanenko Museum staff. The first operation was to pack and safely store the museum’s collection. On the morning of 10 October 2022, the necessity for this safeguarding was sadly underscored, when several explosions in Kyiv blew out the museum’s windows and damaged the doors and the roof. That very day, ALIPH provided funds to carry out emergency measures to stabilize the building. In early 2023, this partnership was strengthened when ALIPH partnered with the Musée du Louvre and the Khanenko Museum to conserve and analyze in Paris sixteen masterpieces of sacred art from the Ukrainian museum. Five of these pieces are showcased in the exhibition “The origins of the Sacred Image - Icons from the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum” inaugurated in June 2023 at the Musée du Louvre.

Khanenko Museum, Kyiv

Safeguarding collections

An important preventative measure to protect collections is to pack and store them as safely as possible.

Safeguarding collections

Far left and bottom right: museums in Sumy; Top right: museum in Zhytomyr; Middle right a museum in Kyiv Folk art is an important part of Ukrainian cultural heritage. It is featured in the collections of many museums throughout the country.

Ukraine | Protecting monuments and sites

Saint Joan of Myrrh Church, Kharkiv

Protecting monuments and sites

Several methods of protection have been used to safeguard monuments and sites in Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, ALIPH financed the purchase of fire safety equipment and other materials to secure buildings in response to the requests from cultural heritage institutions. Documenting cultural heritage in the event of damage or destruction is another protection method. ALIPH has therefore supported 3D documentation of about fifty endangered historical monuments, particularly in Lviv and Odesa, so that they can be used, if needed, for future restoration projects. Another project funded by ALIPH and led by University College London and the Global Heritage Fund, uses satellite imagery from Planet to track and analyze the state of built cultural heritage in the country. These data could then be used to support restoration works.

The Ukrainian organization Skeiron has scanned over forty historical monuments to create a record of them and render them in 3D. Above are three examples of Skeiron at work.

Protecting monuments and sites

18th-century wooden church of Saint Paraskeva, Zakarpattia

When buildings are damaged during the war, temporary structure are installed to stabilize them until full conservation works can begin.

Ukraine | First aid for cultural heritage

Despite the efforts being made to protect collections, some works can still be harmed. In many cases, the objects are stabilized or even restored on site. ALIPH funded the Ukrainian National Research Restoration Center (NRRC) to set up four vehicles that could allow conservators to undertake emergency restoration works in all areas of the country.

ALIPH is in regular contact with museums that have been recently damaged to quickly provide help. This was demonstrated most starkly in summer 2023, when cultural heritage institutions in Odesa and the surrounding area suffered from intense bombing. In response, ALIPH quickly mounted a dedicated fund implemented by its local partner Museum for Change to help stabilize and protect the region’s endangered cultural heritage.

Clockwise from top Lubny Museum of Local Lore, Poltava Oblast; Chernihiv Historical Museum

First aid for cultural heritage

Top row from left to right Chernihiv Regional Art Museum; Ostroh State Historical and Cultural Reserve, Rivne Oblast; Uman Art Gallery, Cherkasy Oblast; Okhtyrka City Local Lore Museum, Sumy Oblast

Bottom row from left to right Volodymyr Historical Museum, Volyn Oblast; Uman Art Gallery, Cherkasy Oblast; museum in Kyiv; Kremenets Museum of Local Lore, Ternopil Oblast

Conservationists around the country have been applying emergency first aid to paintings and artifacts.

First aid for cultural heritage

ALIPH has funded the creation of four mobile laboratories (vehicles equipped with conservation equipment) so the National Research and Restoration Centre (NRRC) can carry out emergency conservation work wherever needed. The Centre oversees the collections of all the State museums, an estimated 12 million objects, as well as all the movable heritage, such as the collections of churches and historical houses. Each of the Centre’s four branches (Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odesa) has received one heritage ambulance, so that every region of the country can be covered.

First aid for cultural heritage

In July and August 2023, Odesa was heavily bombed. ALIPH quickly responded with a dedicated emergency fund to support the cultural institutions in the region. Within a day of the bombing campaign, the NGO Museum for Change had organized the installation of oriented strand boards (OSB) to cover the doors and windows of four museums. In addition, emergency stabilization works began at the Odesa House of Scientists as well as for two other significant monuments.

House of Scientists, Odesa

Supporting cultural heritage professionals

Cultural heritage professionals have been working around the clock to pack, secure, and restore collections. Oftentimes, this is done in buildings with doors and frames that are themselves protected with sandbags and boards. ALIPH is participating in two programs to provide direct support to heritage professionals in the country. The first, set up by Europa Nostra and the Global Heritage Fund and implemented by the local NGO HERI (Heritage Emergency Response Initiative), supports those working in regions most affected by the war; and the second, led by the Museum Crisis Centre, assists professionals whose salaries have been reduced or cut entirely. Over 260 professionals have received funding through these two initiatives. In total, throughout its projects, ALIPH has supported over 450 cultural heritage professionals in Ukraine to date, of which over 70% are women..

Left Volyn Museum of Local Lore, Volyn Oblast; Right Dubno State Historical and Cultural Reserve, Rivne Oblast

Taking action to protect cultural heritage in conflict or post-conflict areas

The International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) is the principal global fund exclusively dedicated to the protection of heritage in conflict zones and post-conflict situations. It was created in 2017 in response to the massive destruction of cultural heritage that began to escalate in recent years as a result of terrorism and war in the Middle East and the Sahel region.

ALIPH selects, finances, and steers protection or rehabilitation projects of monuments, sites, museums, collections of artifacts or manuscripts, places of worship, and intangible heritage. These are led and implemented by the Foundation’s partners, including NGOs and cultural institutions. The ALIPH way can be summed up by action, agility, and the field. To date, ALIPH has supported about 430 projects in more than 35 countries on 4 continents.

The organization is run with the mindset of a startup, making it an agile instrument, ready to respond quickly during crises, as demonstrated most recently with its work in Ukraine. ALIPH’s priority is to support concrete projects and to work closely with local authorities, communities, and actors.

A public-private partnership, ALIPH counts eight member States—China, Cyprus, France, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—and three private donors—Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, and the Getty. Switzerland is its host country. Since its creation, other public partners—the European Union, Monaco, Oman and Romania—and private foundations, including Andrew W. Mellon Foundation—have also engaged to support ALIPH.

From left to right: Fine Arts Museum, Odesa; Krovets Ethnographic Collection, Kyiv

This exhibition is a tribute to cultural heritage professionals in Ukraine and their work.

ALIPH is supported by:

Members:

France

United Arab Emirates

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Kuwait

Luxembourg

China

Morocco

Cyprus

Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan

Fondation Gandur pour l’Art

Getty

Host country:

Switzerland

Public donors

Principality of Monaco

Oman

Romania

Private donors:

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Mr. Joshua Fink

Lionel Sauvage Family Foundation

The ALIPH Action Plan to protect cultural heritage in Ukraine is also supported by:

We thank all of our partners for their ongoing cooperation. We would like to thank in particular the following partners who supplied the majority of the photos for the exhibition:

NRRC Museum for Change

Philippe Servent

Yurii Stefanyak

Emmanuel Durand

Skeiron