The exhibit went on display at the National Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum of Arts in Kyiv on June 4. This valuable vessel for ablutions was stolen from the exhibition hall of the Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky Archeological Museum. The police launched a criminal investigation which went nowhere. However, the louterion was located and recovered by the state in the spring of this year with the assistance of the Oleksandr Feldman Charitable Foundation.
The investigation into the theft of the exhibit is continuing, and the vessel is a piece of physical evidence in it. “We will not disclose details which are better suited for a detective novel. However, returning cultural treasures always requires legal, financial, and human resources,” director of the Feldman Foundation Maksym Vodka told the press. “Fortunately, this artifact never left Ukraine. Our foundation usually helps to return artifacts which went missing during the First and Second World Wars. Here, though, we dealt with a non-standard task. Most importantly, the vessel is back in the hands of its rightful owner, and people can see it.”
The louterion is part of a complex of ancient bronze vessels, found in the village of Pishchane, Cherkasy region, in the early 1960s. Only the louterion, found first, was kept in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky. All other bronze artifacts, 14 exhibits in total, have been kept at the National Museum of History of Ukraine. The vessel complex is a unique find which was exhibited abroad, including in the US.
The thieves damaged the rarity. The louterion has “lost” one of its legs, shaped like a lion’s paw, and now falls when unpropped. “I know the collection of bronze vessels which the louterion belongs to, but still barely recognized the exhibit on its return. Uniquely, all these vessels are covered with a thin film of black-and-olive patina. The thieves cleaned the louterion with abrasives, so it now looks differently from the collection’s other artifacts,” employee of the National Restoration Research Center of Ukraine Viktor Holub told us. “It looks like the rarity spent some time in the barbarian hands. There are corrosion products on its surface as well as traces of attempts to solder it with tin.”
The louterion’s future has not been determined yet. The Khanenko Museum helped to hold expert identification of the artifact and gave advice on the vessel’s preservation. Representatives of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and museum workers hope that the police will allow to conduct restoration work on the exhibit even as the investigation continues. “We have arranged for the National Restoration Research Center to restore the vessel,” head of the ministry’s museum work and cultural treasures department Vasyl Rozhko revealed. “Separately, we will decide where to keep the artifact. While the louterion belongs to the Pereiaslav-Khmelnytsky Archeological Museum, it is also part of the treasure kept at the National Museum of History. We must take action to prevent another theft.”
