Exhibition of Evacuated Artwork from Ukraine’s Odesa Opens in Germany

An exhibition of works evacuated from the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art has opened in the German capital, Berlin, at the Gemäldegalerie gallery, The Art Newspaper reports.

At the opening of the exhibition ‘From Odesa to Berlin. European Painting of the 16th-19th Centuries’ was attended by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.  

The exhibition was funded by the German government. The 60 works on display include works by Frans Hals, Cornelis de Ham, Bernardo Strozzi, Francesco Granacci and paintings from the Gemäldegalerie collection, many of which arrived from Odesa without frames due to the war.  

‘The beautiful old part of Odesa, where the Museum of Western and Eastern Art is located, has been repeatedly hit by rocket attacks,’ Steinmeier said at the opening, ’and in countless Ukrainian cities, architectural monuments continue to be damaged, cultural institutions destroyed and works of art stolen.’

The German President stressed that ‘the attacks on museums, theatres, operas and libraries are aimed at destroying the cultural memory of Ukraine’.  

The exhibition offers free admission for Ukrainians. In addition, the texts of the exhibition and the catalogue are in Ukrainian.  

‘I hope that this exhibition will be seen by many people from Germany, Europe and around the world. I hope that Ukrainians who have found refuge here in Germany will find a piece of home in the paintings,’ Steinmeier said. He expressed hope that ‘the paintings can soon be returned to where they belong: to the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odesa, in a free and independent Ukraine, where no one should be afraid of bombs or missiles.’  

The exhibition will run in Berlin until 22 June, and in October it will move to Heidelberg.  

The Odesa Museum of Western and Oriental Art, founded in 1923, had an impressive collection of European paintings, sculpture, prints and applied art spanning the Renaissance to the twentieth century before the full-scale invasion.  

Shortly after the outbreak of war on 24 February 2022, the most valuable paintings were moved to an emergency shelter in Ukraine. However, fearing that the museum would not be able to provide adequate protection for the works, the Ukrainian side turned to Berlin museums for help. In September 2023, 74 paintings were transported to Berlin, where they were processed by Gemäldegalerie conservation specialists.