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Mariupol Museum Launches English-Language Version of the Digital Catalog its Lost Collection

  • Mar 30
  • 3 min read

The Mariupol Museum of Local Lore has unveiled an English-language version of the digital catalog of its museum collection. The resource is now accessible to an international audience and opens to the world a collection that was lost as a result of Russian military aggression, yet preserved in digital form.


As of 2022, the museum’s collection comprised approximately 60,000 objects. With the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the museum, along with the city of Mariupol, was destroyed. The occupying forces removed or destroyed the museum’s holdings, and the fate of a significant portion of the objects remains unknown.


In response, the museum team, together with its partners, is establishing a public register of lost cultural property consisting of documented objects of memory, legal record, and future restitution.




Symbolically, work on the project began on the eve of the museum’s 105th anniversary on February 6, 2025. In December 2025, the digital catalog was launched in Ukrainian.


“We believe that this virtual hall of memory will become a significant instrument in investigating Russia’s crimes against the cultural heritage of Mariupol and Ukraine, as well as a valuable resource for scholars, researchers, and all those interested in the history and culture of the region,” the museum team stated.

The mission of the catalog is to provide reliable, verified information on objects from the museum’s collection holdings that is critically important for investigations into the fate of the lost collection.


The catalog is based on museum inventory books that have survived only in digital form; the physical books were destroyed by fire. At present, the resource features the museum’s art collection: 679 paintings and 1,010 graphic works. The “Painting” section includes works by artists such as Ivan Aivazovsky, Mykola Dubovskyi, Viktor Arnautov, Mykola Bendryk, and Arkhyp Kuindzhi. The “Graphics” section includes etchings, linocuts, and lithographs by Ivan Shyshkin, Anatolii Bezbatko, Oleksandr Hubariev, Petro Kot, and Viktor Kofanov.


The Mariupol Museum’s catalog is the first and currently the only public register in Ukraine of lost museum property created by a museum institution itself.


“All objects recorded in the catalog automatically acquire the status of restitution objects. Any possession, transfer, or attempt to sell such artifacts constitutes a violation of international law,” emphasized Daryna Pidhorna, legal expert and analyst at the Raphael Lemkin Society.

In effect, the catalog turns stolen items into “toxic assets,” creating legal and reputational risks for any attempts at their legalization. The Mariupol Museum of Local Lore remains the sole legitimate and authoritative source of data on the collection, making any attempts at misappropriation or falsification of provenance impossible.


According to Daryna Pidhorna, the next steps should include integrating the catalog into international databases, specifically the Interpol Stolen Works of Art Database and the ICOM Red Lists, systematic monitoring of black and gray art markets, preparation of an evidentiary base for court proceedings and reparations claims, and an international information campaign on platforms of the United Nations and UNESCO.


The digital catalog of the Mariupol Museum of Local Lore stands as public evidence of a crime against Ukrainian culture and as a tool for protecting cultural memory.


The digital catalog is available at: https://collections.mariupol-museum.org.ua/en 


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