This icon, Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan River from the iconostasis of the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Lybokhora village, Turka raion, Lviv oblast, was painted in the late 16th century. “The returned monument is a part of one of the few preserved Ukrainian iconostasis ensembles of that time,” the head of the department “Old Ukrainian Art” at the Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum, Maria Helytovych explained to The Day. “The icons got to the museum in 1914. Our first director Hilarion Swiecicki brought them to Lviv.” “Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan River is the fourth icon that has been returned to us,” the head of the National Museum Ihor Kozhan said, adding that the Dutch foundation ODIGIA bought the icon a year ago from its former owner. The procedure of transfer of the rarity to Ukraine took place a month ago in Hague, at Ukraine’s Embassy to the Netherlands, and last Friday it was presented at the Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum.
It will be reminded that in January 1984, 22 icons of the 15th-18th centuries were stolen from the depository of the National Museum in Lviv. The police could find only nine of them immediately after the crime. For a long time it has been unknown what happened to the rest.
The 16th-century icon Entry to Jerusalem was brought back to Ukraine in 2003 by Germany’s Ministry of Culture. In July 2011 the icon of the 16th century Holy Mother’s Protection was brought from Europe to Lviv by Russian collector Igor Vozyakov. Last September one more sacred object of the 15th century came back to Ukraine, the icon Crucifixion with Attendants, which had been part of the collection of Russian Mikhail de Boire (Yelizavetin). “Hopefully, it is not the last time,” the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Mykhailo Kulyniak admitted at the ceremony dedicated to the return of the icon Baptism of Jesus at the Jordan River to the Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum.
