A monument of architecture for sale

The buffer zone of the Sophia Kyivska, as well as the entire historic part of Kyiv, are highly appealing for developers. The Day has recently written about the victory of the local community, which managed to ban a construction near the protected area in Honchar Street. Now a new object needing protection has appeared. It is also located in the buffer zone of the Sophia — in Mala Zhytomyrska Street. Four buildings with the status of monuments of architecture of national importance were illegally transferred from municipal to private ownership. The mansion of the famous Ukrainian artist of the 19th-20th centuries, the founder of the Ukrainian Academy of Art Oleksandr Murashko is one of them. The building is 150 years old.

How these monuments of architecture, which can be only restored and nothing else, became the property of private companies is a question neither residents nor experts can answer. The Kyiv Council’s Commission for Culture and Tourism states that neither the district council nor the city council, which make decisions on selling municipal property, gave a permission to pass these monuments on to private property.

“The problem is that before 2007 the buildings belonged to the territorial community of the Shevchenkivsky district, so, in fact, the Shevchenkivsky district council could manage them. Thus, these buildings were at the disposal of the municipal enterprise Zhytloinvestbud,” says Oleksandr Hlukhov, a resident of one of the buildings and public inspector of the Main Department for Cultural Heritage Protection at the Kyiv City State Administration. “Then these buildings were sold to the company Panteon-Invest. How could it happen that the managing company, not being the owner, sold the buildings to someone else? They could only be sold with the agreement of the department of monument protection. It gives a special permission: the owner of the building must conclude a protection agreement, according to which the owner is obliged to keep to the law on protected heritage sites, undertake restoration, and not to ruin anything. Of course, none of this was the case. We also addressed the newly appointed head of the Kyiv City State Administration Oleksandr Popov, who entrusted this issue to the department involved in selling the buildings. I got a confirmation from them that the building was really sold because they were allowed to do it based on the resolution of the Kyiv Council’s Commission for Culture and Tourism in 2009, though actually it was sold in 2008.”

Almost all the residents of the architectural monuments have moved already. Only the Hlukhov family stayed, the new “owner” is now trying to evict them. They addressed the police and the city council for help. Everything ended in the resolution of the Kyiv City State Administration to stop all works in the buildings except for restoration, and Kyiv Council’s Commission for Culture and Tourism appealed to the public prosecutor’s office.

“While the investigating authorities are busy with the inquiry on who bought the building and to what extent the deal was legal, the Murashko mansion might be reduced to a state leaving it unfit for restoration,” adds the head of the commission Oleksandr Bryhynets. “Therefore I address the public prosecutor’s office again with the request to freeze the property until the circumstances are known. Since the Murashko building belongs to the protected zone of the Sophia Kyivska and is a historic monument, it can only be restored. Special permission is required for all other works, and the owner does not have them. Any illegal activities within the mentioned protected area are dangerous for Ukraine as never before, since UNESCO is carefully watching everything happening around the Sophia or Lavra, and also threatens to include our sacred places, our wonders of Kyiv, on the so-called black-list. If we are not careful about our cultural heritage, not only we will lose valuable objects, but also will be disgraced throughout the world.”

Experts believe that returning the object to the municipal property is the only solution for saving the monuments. But it is difficult to believe that this miracle will happen, since nowadays one can sell and buy anything. However, we wish that the unique buildings, prime examples of early 20th century architecture, didn’t join the list of lost objects. According to the Society of Monuments Protection, at present the list includes three objects of national importance and almost a half a hundred objects of local importance.