Arrested paintings/ARMA
In order to preserve cultural heritage, the Agency for Search and Management of Assets (ARMA) will hand over 148 paintings that belonged to Viktor Medvedchuk, accused of high treason, to the National Art Museum of Ukraine.
This is reported on the website. ARMA.
On September 2, ARMA received experts' conclusions regarding the arrested paintings belonging to former People's Deputy from the banned “OPZZ” Viktor Medvedchuk. In total, the court seized 284 paintings.
148 paintings from this collection will be transferred to the National Art Museum of Ukraine to, as noted in ARMA, become the property of future generations of Ukrainians. 136 paintings that do not have significant cultural value willimplemented through Prozorro.Sales. The funds received will be directed to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Previously, the National Agency did not have a legislative mechanism that would allow the transfer of seized assets and cultural property to national museums. Thanks to the initiative of Anastasia Radina, head of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy of the VRU, this legislative mechanism can be created already this week. It is about draft law No. 11280-1 on the peculiarities of the management of cultural values and other assets, ARMA clarified.
It is emphasized that works of art seized in this way will be used as efficiently as possible in the interests of the state. Valuable exhibits will be preserved for future generations, and funds from the sale of paintings that do not have signs of cultural heritage will be directed to the needs of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
Viktor Medvedchuk/RIA NOVOSTI
Viktor Medvedchuk was in the past one of the richest people in Ukraine, as well as a politician, leader opposition faction in the Verkhovna Rada. The best man of the Russian president is accused of treason and violation of the customs of war. Ukrainian law enforcement officers detained him in April 2022.
In September of the same year, Medvedchuk was handed over to Russia as part of a large-scale exchange of prisoners. In January 2023, the President of Ukraine deprived Medvedchuk of his Ukrainian citizenship.