Nobody knows how many artistic and historic masterpieces are fated to be lost in the basements of Ukrainian museums.
First one hears about the many artistic masterpieces taken to Germany during World War II and during perestroika. The problem of restitution became especially acute after the disintegration of the USSR. Each of the new sovereign states declared restitution of its masterpieces as one of the most important goals of its cultural and foreign policies. However, many masterpieces had been returned to the museums plundered by Nazis even in the immediate postwar period. Nevertheless, the destiny of some of them is so woeful that sometimes we cannot help thinking: "Better if they had not been returned." Moreover, many returned masterpieces have already been lost in Ukraine. Perhaps more than one masterpiece thought to be lost in Germany has fallen into oblivion under dust in the storage room of some Ukrainian museum. The following could happen again.
In 1948 several boxes were put in the basement of the Ukrainian Decorative Arts Museum, put under the stairs, and locked up for 47 years. These boxes contained the ceramic collection of Academician Mykola Biliashivsky. What was left of it, to be more exact.
At the beginning of World War II, museum employees prepared the collection for evacuation. But they had had no time either to remove or hide it. The Nazis took it to Germany. Some items were unpacked in Dresden; obviously, the Germans wanted to round out their own museum collections. After that, many blown glasswares, porcelain, clay toys etc. were packed in one box. As a result everything turned into fragments, and the many years of work by Mykola Biliashivsky was shattered.
At the beginning of our century he traveled all over Ukraine, collecting exhibits of the Ukrainian applied decorated arts - carpets, towels, glass, etc. But he was particularly fond of ceramics, both archaic and modern. Each item in his collection was unique, every bowl had its own "face" and "character."
In 1995 destiny seemed to smile on Biliashivsky's heritage. The chief of the Applied Decorated Arts Department of the Restoration and Professional Investigations Center of the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves Oleksandr Zahrebelny came down to the basement while restoring one of the exhibits of the museum. The temperature in the building was zero and humidity over 90%. The boxes with the Biliashivsky's collection were under stairs flooded with water, covered with rotten wood and scraps of newspapers, reduced to dust. Oleksandr Zahrebelny took them to the restoration workshop, after having cleaned and sorted them out. Now, there were 1500 pottery wares suitable for restoration, broken into 20 or even 60 splinters, or, as restorers say, fragments on the floor and on the tables in the workshop. And there was also blown glass and porcelain. After two years of work 200 articles were restored. With this degree of damage, the restoration rate is 50 articles a year.
The specialists of the center refrained from renewing the painted coating of damaged spots, because this laborious work demands much time and money. But due to the change in humidity and temperature destructive bacteria began to breed. There will be nothing to restore in half a year or in a year. The ceramics will turn to dust. Conservation is necessary which would take one and a half or two years, but the center lacks the necessary facilities. Expenses for purchase of the necessary materials, chemicals, and equipment needed for conservation would cost about 10,000 hryvnias.
The restorers are seeking funds. Perhaps they will be in luck: in March there will be a conference of chiefs of charitable foundations, the Restoration and Professional Investigations Center of the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, the National Committee on problems of restitution of cultural values to Ukraine, which will consider ways rescue the Biliashivsky collection.
But how many collections like this one are considered missing? How many of them are under the threat of being lost? Of course, the things returned after the war and forgotten in the basements can be ascribed to the guilty conscience of the former regime. But how does it differ from the current one?
Probably, there are many among German, Austrian, Swiss museum employees, scientists, and politicians, who after having known about the destiny of Academician Biliashivsky's collection and the like, would never agree to return to Ukraine looted masterpieces. Perhaps, many of us will consent to this with a heavy heart, but "there," at least, they will be preserved.
Foto:
We keep what we have: this is how a substantial part of the Biliashivsky collection now looks







