This is the former National Museum of Lviv in Ukraine, and visitors often check in at the largest art museum in the western part of the country to admire the finest art.
Today, although the war has not yet affected the area, officials and individuals do not want these valuable items to be destroyed. It houses numerous folklore exhibits, fine art and precious manuscripts. The staff hastily packed the artifacts, leaving an empty frame with only text introductions.
Lviv's galleries, museums and churches are undergoing a large-scale operation to protect the city's cultural heritage. Thousands of works of art were carefully transferred to secret underground locations, or storage rooms.
The curator, Ihor Kozhan, was upset and introduced people to what looked like a looted museum.
Almost all of the 1,500 artifacts on display have now been removed. The remaining 97 percent of the collection — 180,000 pieces in all — has been stored in some form.
"Everything, everything is gone." Kozan said regretfully.
Despite overseeing the work, Kozan was amazed at how quickly his team could dismantle the 17th-century Bohorocini icon sculpture. The iconoclasm is a group of 10-meter-wide religious paintings and is one of the museum's most valuable works. He said it took six months to hang it piece by piece, and it took less than six days to remove it from the scaffolding and store it.
Beginning in 1698 and after 7 years of construction and painting, this portrait is of the highest standard by the idol painter Yov Kondzelevych. It has been in Lviv since 1924, when the Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine brought it back from Poland to Ukraine.
It was demolished and hidden in 1939, banned from display during the Soviet period, painstakingly restored in 2006 and now demolished again.
He said that although the war has started and there has been no evacuation plan, things have developed rapidly to the point where they must not go away!
Lviv cultural and religious officials are engaged in a complex operation, wrapping the statue, sealing the stained glass windows, and transporting the "holy relics" away.
On the city's main square, fountains of statues of the Greek gods are wrapped in flame-retardant fabrics and covered with scaffolding to protect them from damage such as temporarily collapsed masonry debris.
Liliya Onischenko, director of the Office of Heritage Protection of the Lviv City Council, said: "It was a bit confusing at first, but now it has become more organized. Before moving away, we take pictures of everything and take photos of all hidden places. ”
In the Armenian Cathedral, a 15th-century precious wooden sculpture of Christ the Cross was removed for the first time since World War II and taken to a secret, safe place.
Deacon Armen Hakopian said other artifacts besides the statue had also been removed, but he would not elaborate. Just laugh and say, "What needs to be cleared has been cleared."
The windows of this 850-year-old Armenian cathedral are plain, as the original stained glass was blown up by German bombing in the 1940s. But above, stained glass remains high above the dome and church.
Right now
before
The institutions in Lviv have plenty of time to prepare. They may also be able to escape the violence. But there is deep concern about the attack on cultural, religious and architectural treasures in parts of Ukraine.
Kozan said he feared ukraine's cultural structure would be destroyed. "It's a place with historical memories," he said. The museum here preserves the history of the country. They make us understand who we were, who we are now, and who we will be in the future. And someone wants to destroy it. ”
By Wednesday, the work of emptying the National Museum was almost complete — only a few cardboard boxes containing manuscripts remained in doorways, and a statue lying on the floor — needed to be protected in other ways. Kozan said the artifacts that were moved underground were time-limited, and without proper climate control, they would begin to deteriorate, amounting to destruction. He sighed and said that if they were hit directly, they would most likely not be saved, because the bunkers were not designed to withstand powerful bombs.
"Hopefully we can bring them up as soon as possible," he said. It's hard for me to be in these empty rooms and hallways. We could have walked here all day together and admired our history and art. "When asked about the total value of the museum's works, Kozan refused." Of course there are no specific figures," he said. "If these things are destroyed, they cannot be recreated."
The reporter asked is also a white question, there is no one who does not really cherish the cultural relics to do this work, asking is a self-degrading level, especially at this time, and not in the auction house. Looking at these works carefully, it is really pure and simple, which makes people feel at ease, and I hope to return to the museum as soon as possible for tourists to enjoy.