One of the greatest values and shrines of our nation could find itself out in the street. The Scythian Pectoral, which is considered a masterpiece of jewelry art of global significance, and is dated back to the 4th century BC, may disappear into nowhere along with other national treasures. This is simply because the government had issued a decree about the eviction of all museums from the territory of the Kyiv Cave Monastery, along with all the funds and expositions. The museums on the territory of the Lavra were given two weeks to find new premises. After that the government has left alone, for the time being, the museums on the Lavra’s territory. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced yesterday that the eviction of the museums was being put off for an indefinite time until new premises were found or built. On the one hand, this cannot but inspire joy because this arouses a shimmering hope that the museum repositories, now comprising over 400,000 items, will be left intact and will not vanish into thin air. But, on the other hand, there still remains a lingering alarm because Mykola Azarov has not yet said anything to this effect (and it is his words that stirred up all this fuss). Nor is it clear what decisions the prime minister will make after the next visit of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow to Ukraine. The visit is just a few days away: it was scheduled for November 22-23. The patriarch will take part in celebrating the 75th birthday of Volodymyr, Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine. It will be recalled that it was after Kirill’s last visit to Ukraine in July 2010 that our government announced that the museums would be removed from the Lavra’s territory. Experts believe this decision was caused by the intention to establish the patriarch’s residency here and it was planned to remove the museums as soon as possible before his next arrival. The museum employees worried that in spite of the national importance, the pectoral and other valuable items located in the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine would be evicted. The specialists call these treasures a swan song, as no one will ever replicate what had once been done by the nation’s masters.
When will these national treasures receive the attention they deserve, from the state, society and citizen alike? The Day was one of the first actors to stand in the defense of St. Sophia’s Cathedral when developers started digging trenches near the temple in order to build another high-riser. At that time, the monument from the times of Yaroslav the Wise was happily saved. The same is now about to happen with the museums.
The Day asked the senior staff scientist of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life and Honoured Worker of Culture of Ukraine Lidia OREL about the museum’s options and how to resolve this conflict.
Mrs. Orel, how can a compromise between the church and the museums be found?
“Museum directors often say that their collections are being sent nowhere. The question is about 400,000 exhibits. The museums require specially built premises with all the necessary room and equipment. As for the collections of the Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life of Ukraine, it is most reasonable to build a fund depository on the territory of the museum itself. Previously, the museum collections were kept in churches, monasteries, and they got along, and did not argue.
“This used to be the case in the Subotiv, in the times of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The churches had the best towels, carpets, wood. The question of the museum’s eviction from the Lavra’s territory has been on the table since 2007. The situation became strained after Patriarch Cirill’s sojourn. In our opinion, there are enough churches of Moscow patriarchate in Ukraine, particularly in Kyiv and on the Lavra’s territory. Believers do not complain of their lack. And it is known from history that religious buildings have often saved museums. Moreover, the problem is that the direction of the reserve has changed — when we asked our director about what to do with 80,000 exhibits from our museum fund, she suggested moving them to the Academy of Sciences. But there is no space, unless you bring them to Paton’s study.”
Previously, the variant of placing the funds in the Art Arsenal was being considered…
“The recently proposed premises of the Art Arsenal cannot receive our exhibits, and its repair-restoration work may continue for a long time. And how do you imagine museum exhibitions in rooms that are 12 meters high? Contemporary art is suitable there – big paintings, sculptures, tapestry. But not what the classical museum funds have. Each museum has its golden fund. I have worked in St. Petersburg, where, for example, painted Faberge eggs are kept in special drawers, and you cannot touch them. These things aren’t even taken on exhibitions, you may only contemplate them for scientific purposes. Museum directors now agree that the best variant is separate premises, and permanent ones at that, in order not to transport the collections from place to place.”
What will be the damage to our cultural legacy if the museums are evicted?
“Not saving the funds will be like genocide. If one were only to mention the National Folk Decorative Art Museum, which is based on a collection gathered by Biliashivsky, Khvoika, and Scherbakivsky. The funds contain works of art dated back to the 18th-20th centuries, including artificial textures, national clothing from different regions of Ukraine, carved wooden items, pictorial art works and folk painting. The museum is priceless. If there also were large show-rooms to demonstrate them, it would have been great. The museum also has an immense collection of carpets, but apart from the Hutsul region, no one does go in for them. There are collections of ceramics from all cultural centers and author’s works — to mention but Bilokur and Pryimachenko, two highly-gifted artists. Or the State Museum of Book and Printing History. There are tens of thousands exhibits collected there, which narrate the history of the written language among Slavs, the first hand-written books, the development of book printing in Ukraine since its origin until today. If the museums are evicted, we will lose all that without a trace. There are many organizations and offices on the Lavra’s territory, which do not fit into its historical and cultural ensemble. They should be evicted in the first place.”
So how, in you opinion, can the temples and museum be reconciled?
“We hope that the lack of money won’t last forever, and the means for building new premises for museum funds will be assigned. There are specialists for that. As for the temples, there are five wooden sanctified churches on our territory, and I don’t know about any misunderstanding between them. Today we need to take care of the economy in the first place instead of, by means of such resettling, destroying the treasures and spiritual monuments of our nation, thousands of which were ruined and sent abroad in the years of totalitarianism.
