Art theft and looting by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022-ongoing), Russian forces and organizations have stolen and looted tens of thousands of art pieces from Ukraine, ranging from modern art to ancient Scythian gold.

In the Kherson region, shortly before fleeing the area to the north of the Dnieper river Russians destroyed, either fully or in part, over 200 Ukrainian cultural sites[3] and stole around 10,000 art pieces from the city's museums, out of a collection of 13,000.

[4] Other sources put the number of stolen art works from Kherson alone at 15,000.

[3] In occupied Melitopol, Russian troops stole a 4th century golden helmet dating to the Scythian kingdom, worth millions of dollars.

[4] Russian soldiers attempted to force the local museum director to reveal the location of other Scythian gold artifact which she had hidden shortly before Russian army occupied the city.