A French auction house representative told StopFake that a billboard advertising the sale of Ukrainian icons from the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves is fake, and no such an auction is planned. The Osenat website has no auctions scheduled for October 1. Claims that the West is exporting and selling Ukrainian artworks are Russian disinformation.
Social media users, as well as some Russian media, write that a special auction will be held in Paris to sell icons from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves. As proof they attach a photo of a billboard advertising the event, allegedly scheduled for October 1, 2023.
Previously, Russian propaganda spread similar disinformation claiming that Western countries were deliberately exporting Ukrainian artworks, including sacred objects from the Lavra.
StopFake reached out to the Osenat Auction House, whose name was on the billboard advertising the alleged auction. An Osenat representative told us that the auction house never planned such an event and all information about the alleged auction is false and slanderous. He said the authors of the fake stole the Osenat emblem and used information from the auction house’s open website.
One can also easily check the schedule of upcoming sales at Osenat on the auction house website. While there is an auction of Russian art planned for September 24, 2023, there is no auction of Ukrainian icons listed on the schedule, and no events are planned for October 1 at all.
StopFake previously debunked similar disinformation about the West allegedly exporting artworks from Ukraine, which had been looted under the pretext of war. Some works of art were in fact evacuated to European museums in order to save them from continuous Russian shelling of cultural heritage sites, museums and galleries and other civilian infrastructure. The Ukrainian Culture Ministry assures that all artworks will be returned to Ukraine as soon as their safety is assured.
