Most former Soviet republics have of late become a bonanza for antiquities hunters. Interpol reports point to over 40 organized criminal groups operating in Western European countries alone, basically made up of immigrants from the CIS, specializing in locating, buying, and stealing antiquities.
There are 525 state-owned museums and subsidiaries, plus 6,000 publicly controlled ones in Ukraine. Their stocks number more than 10,000,000 historical and cultural valuables. Enough to loot and spare. Last year was marked by 23 burglaries aimed at museum antiquities (private collections being the target in 20 cases), 206 thefts, including 83 churches and other places of worship, and 112 private collections.
A special commission to combat theft of cultural valuables, organized by the Russian Interior Ministry, held a conference in Vladimir at the end of February this year. Among those present were law enforcement officers from Russia, Orthodox clergy, and Interior officials from Belarus, Latvia, and Ukraine.
One of the conference participants, Lieutenant Colonel Vasyl Zaichenko, Deputy Head of the Grave Property Crimes Division, Chief Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, agreed to share his views on the problem with The Day.
He cited statistics which convincingly show that the number of such crimes registered in Ukraine is lower than in Russia by an order of magnitude (in 1996: 3,119 in Russia and 238 in Ukraine; in 1997: 2,944 and 231, respectively).
The Art Museum of Chernihiv was burglarized in June 1997. The malefactors overpowered the guard and turned off the burglar alarm system, getting away with 11 canvases by well-known artists worth over $3.5 million. Obviously well planned and rehearsed, this crime is still an open case. No pictures found.
According to Mr. Zaichenko, such crimes are becoming more organized, perpetrated by groups specializing in stealing antiquities and taking them out of Ukraine. They are well disguised, modern equipped, and staffed with experts. Part of the loot ends up in private collections, of course (primarily those owned by nouveaux riches of all shades who don't give a damn about where the stuff comes from). The rest, usually the most precious things, are smuggled out of the country, to other former Soviet republics, and further on overseas. More often than not this means that the stolen property will never be recovered.
Last November, the police apprehended a group of criminals in Manchester trying to sell two pictures at њ1.5 million that turned out to have been stolen from the State Art Museum of Poltava in March that same year. Among those arrested was Oleh Antoniuk, a Ukrainian citizen, an ex-commando officer with combat experience accumulated in the former USSR's hot spots. The British police further discovered that he had operated in contact with the Russian-UK Godfather, Sergei Prostik. The pictures were returned to Ukraine. Only two. What about the rest?
On April 29, 1997, two unidentified criminals used a smoke grenade in raiding Lviv's art gallery, getting away with three canvases, of which two were by Mateiko. Two gallery workers, Shelest and Volchak, who tried to resist the burglars, were shot. The city's Arsenal armory museum was robbed the previous year. An unarmed militiaman standing guard could do nothing against six armed robbers. The museum lost six diamond-studded swords. That same year the Olesky Castle was burglarized (the criminals placed an 8-meter tree trunk against the wall, climbed it, got into the premises, and returned with 15 precious canvases).
Often, law enforcement authorities find themselves helpless trying to locate stolen property, and even if finding some the true malefactors remain evasive and illusive.
Why? There are many reasons. Mr. Zaichenko mentioned the lack of coordination and cooperation among law enforcement agencies in the CIS countries For example, such cooperation is inadequate in Ukraine — between the militia and the customs authorities. What makes the situation worse is the absence of a unified database that could quickly produce information on stolen museum property. He said that keeping a single register of historic and cultural valuables owned by the state, public, and religious organizations, jointly with the Ministry of Culture and leaders of all religious communities, would build a heavy obstacle in the way of antiquities hunters. And cataloguing private collections would be very instrumental, too.
The problem of protecting cultural valuables is so complex that the law enforcement agencies are unable to solve it unaided. Does this mean that foreign collectors will continue to benefit from stolen national relics?






