On January 23, the Berlin Gemäldegalerie hosted the grand opening of the exhibition “From Odesa to Berlin. European painting of the XVI-XIX centuries”. The exhibition includes 60 paintings from the collection of the Odesa Museum of Western and Oriental Art, as well as works from Berlin collections.
The ceremony was attended by Federal President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine Mykola Tochytskyi, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, State Minister Claudia Roth, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Hermann Partzinger, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Germany Oleksiy Makeev.
In his speech,Frank-Walter Steinmeier emphasized that the exhibition demonstrates that Russia’s bloody war of aggression is also a war against Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian identity. At the same time, the exhibition emphasizes the courage and determination of Ukrainians in protecting their cultural heritage.
The German President emphasized the importance of the exhibits from the museum in Odesa, which were saved from Russian attacks and brought to Berlin. He called for continued support for Ukraine in its struggle for its culture and expressed hope for the paintings’ speedy return to independent Ukraine.
In turn, Mykola Tochytskyi expressed his gratitude to the German partners for supporting joint efforts to protect Ukraine’s cultural identity. He emphasized that Ukrainian culture is an integral part of European culture. At the same time, the patronage of the exhibition of masterpieces from the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art is an important practical step in developing a cultural dialogue between Ukrainians and Germans.
“Joint cultural events help the German audience to get to know Ukrainian culture better, to see its vulnerability in the face of Russian aggression and to understand why it is so important to protect it,” the Minister emphasized. “Russians can destroy a museum and a building, but they cannot erase cultural memory. The barbaric attack on Ukrainian culture is an attack on Europe.”
As a reminder, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the staff of the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odesa evacuated the most valuable paintings to a safe place. In September 2023, 74 works of art were delivered to the German capital, and in February 2024, about a dozen paintings became part of an exhibition at an art gallery in Berlin. Now visitors will have the opportunity to see another 60 paintings from the Odesa museum. Among them are works by Francesco Granacci, a representative of the Florentine school, Rulant Saverey, a master of etching and an outstanding artist from the golden age of Dutch painting, as well as the German landscape painter Andreas Achenbach.
Exhibition “From Odesa to Berlin” opens in Berlin under the patronage of the President of GermanyThe project is implemented under the patronage of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and with the support of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media Claudia Roth.
Theexhibition at the Berlin Art Gallery will run until June 22, 2025.
