Culture | Treasure quest

Inside the hunt for Ukraine’s stolen art

Unless Ukraine wins the war, there is no way to recover what Russia has looted

A sculpture sits at the Kherson Regional Art Museum.
Image: Finbarr O’Reilly/The New York Times/Redux/Eyevine
|KHERSON and KYIV

ON AN UNSEASONABLY warm day in October, the silence outside broken by birdsong and artillery fire, Olga Goncharova sat in her office on the ground floor of the Kherson Regional Museum, a bulletproof vest wrapped around the back of her chair, the windows covered with plywood, and cursed the Russians. “They’re vandals, the people who did this,” she said.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Treasure quest”

From the January 13th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Culture

An illustration of a stack of books that make up the American flag.

Want to spend time with a different American president?

Five presidential biographies to distract you from the news

Eames House, Chautauqua Drive, Pacific Palisades, California

Los Angeles has lost some of its trailblazing architecture

How will it rebuild?


A worker takes down a sign saying "shareholders", immediately after the UBS General Assembly which followed the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse

What firms are for

The framework for thinking about business and capitalism is hopelessly outdated, argues a new book


Greg Gutfeld, America’s most popular late-night host, rules the airwaves

The left gave him his perch

Why matcha, made from green tea, is the drink of the moment

Is it really a healthy alternative to coffee? Not the way Gen Z orders it