Rescued Ukraine artworks on display in German exhibition free for Ukrainian refugees

The Berlin show consists of 60 works from the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, including by Frits Thaulow and Francesco Granacci

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Visitors stand in front of the painting Ecce Homo (circa 1625), by Italian painter Bernardo Strozzi, at the exhibition “From Odesa to Berlin: European Painting of the 16th to 19th Century” at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, Germany, on January 22, 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:15am, 25 Jan 2025Updated: 4:22am, 25 Jan 2025

A Berlin gallery has opened an exhibition of artworks from a museum in Ukraine that were evacuated to Germany in 2023 to spare them from Russian bombardment.

Some 60 works from the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art went on public display at their temporary new home in the Gemäldegalerie in the German capital.

Germany was at Ukraine’s side “in defending your freedom and independence, in protecting your cultural heritage”, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at the opening ceremony.

From left: Madonna Enthroned with the Blessing Child, John the Baptist and St. Michael the Archangel (circa 1490-95), by Francesco Granacci, and Enthroned Madonna with Child and St John the Baptist (1519), also by Granacci, at the Berlin exhibition. Photo: EPA-EFE

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the director of the Odesa museum ordered the paintings to be taken down and stored for safekeeping.

The works from the collection in the Black Sea port city were initially hidden in western Ukraine before being transported to Berlin in the second half of 2023 to be restored.

The fact that the works were being displayed in simple wooden frames and not decorative ones was an indication of the exceptional circumstances of their journey, Steinmeier said.

“They are not loans as in a typical art exhibition,” he said.