Among the most recent new exhibits at the Louvre in Paris are five ancient icons from the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko Museum, Ukraine’s national arts institution. They are in Paris as part of a program to shield art treasures from danger in Kiev during the war.
The five will be on exhibit through November; eleven other works that are considered too fragile for display are being kept in the Louvre’s vaults. Other works are in other museums, as well as some stored in the Kiev museum’s own vaults, which are considered risky because of the possibility of power cuts.
Ironically, the five displayed pieces are not actually Ukrainian; four are 6th and 7th century works taken from Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt and the fifth is from 13th or 14th century Constantinople.
