None of the seven works from the Kyiv monastery complex has been shown in the UK before. They include a 1700 icon cut from a single gilded copper sheet.
Seven Ukrainian Orthodox objects from the 18th century, all from the National Preserve Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington until 17 September 2027. The museum says none of them has been shown in the UK before.
One of the pieces in Sacred Treasures from Kyiv is an icon dating from 1700, cut from a single gilded copper sheet. Another is a book of the gospels from 1707, with medallions set into its ornamental cover.
The display grew out of objects the museum already cares for. Two pairs of gates in gilded silver, removed from the Kyiv monastery, belong to the collection of Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert, which is lent to the V&A over the long term. The display follows the history of those gates. The monastery commissioned them in 1784, in the reign of Catherine the Great, and the Soviets took them out in the 1930s to sell abroad.
Goldschmidt Galleries sold the gates in 1935 to William Randolph Hearst, the media tycoon based in California. The Gilberts acquired them in the 1970s. According to the V&A, the gates were once attributed to Russia, although they are Ukrainian.
Maksym Ostapenko, who heads the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra preserve, said the works represent “one of the highest achievements of Ukrainian Baroque art”.
A symposium tied to the display took place at the museum on 15 September. Specialists from Britain and Ukraine discussed how Ukrainian museums have coped since Russia’s invasion in 2022, and how acquisition and displacement shaped the collections now held in the UK.
Maria Blyzinsky, formerly co-chair of Icom UK, spoke about decolonisation in museums and pointed to a recent guide, Supporting Decolonisation: Focus on Ukraine. She said collections in the UK are “a precious resource” for researchers from Ukraine. Caecilia Dance, a Wedlake Bell lawyer who works on art and cultural heritage, set out how the law can help protect Ukrainian heritage, including on restitution and reparations should a peace agreement eventually be signed.
The display is at the V&A in South Kensington until 17 September 2027.
All seven works come from the National Preserve Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a monastery and museum complex in Kyiv.
The Soviets removed them in the 1930s. Goldschmidt Galleries sold them to William Randolph Hearst in 1935 and the Gilberts acquired them in the 1970s. Their collection is lent to the V&A over the long term.
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