CoMuseum 2023 | Museums and Justice

Crimes against Cultural Heritage during the War: Approaching Justice

with
Anastasiia Cherednychenko, Museologist, Historian, Chair of the ICOM Ukraine (UA)

In the context of the military actions carried out by Russia against Ukraine, distinct signs of genocide are manifested, according to the UN Convention of 1948 and the definition of Raphael Lemkin, including “cultural genocide”. The world community faced the need to review the existing architecture of cultural heritage protection during military conflicts due to its insufficient effectiveness, as it became clear during previous conflicts, in particular in Syria.

Museum experts also face the question of how to respond to such manifestations of genocide when representatives of the Russian Federation, with the participation of Russian museum professionals appropriate Ukrainian cultural heritage, from the looted museum collections to the rewriting of historical narratives and the creation of propaganda exhibitions using items that were looted, as in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine as well as on the territory of Russia.
Thus, how should international networks, associations of museum professionals, national associations, and individual museums react if Russian museum professionals participate in war crimes that violate the norms of the international community?

This issue is extremely important since the war in Ukraine has become a massive and vivid example of cultural genocide, which, at the same time, is not the only one, but shows how the lack of reaction creates a sense of impunity and contributes to the commission of more and more crimes against cultural heritage.

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