“Our research suggests that this looting is state-sponsored by Russia,” said a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution, which is preparing a report on the massive scale of the theft. Last fall, Ukrainian troops were closing in on Kherson, rolling back Russian forces who had seized the city after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine. At Kherson’s Regional Art Museum, a team of armed Russians in civilian clothes arrived along with several large trucks and buses. Over five days, they hauled away more than 11,000 pieces of art, including paintings, sculptures, graphics and other works from Ukraine and around the world, said Alina Dotsenko, the director of the museum.
via click2houston: ‘Just the way the Nazis did’: Evidence suggests Russians are stealing art from Ukraine on a World War II scale