In the same year she began work as a researcher at Dmytro Yavornytsky National Historical Museum of Dnipro, and from 1963 was appointed as its director.

She persuaded her brother Oleksiy, who was member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, to support the project.

However, once the works were ready for publication he refused his sister, stating that he could lose his post due to the impartiality of historians' comments.

Over six thousand years old, it is covered with carvings and is interpreted as depicting the "supreme god Aryan pantheon".

Vatchenko, potentially assisted by her brother, Oleksiy, resisted this change to the loan agreement and enabled the return of the idol to the museum.