Journalists of the "Investigation.Info" project received a list with a complete list of works of art seized from Viktor Medvedchuk and learned what is happening with them now.
At the end of October 2022, investigators seized 316 art objects, most of them paintings, from Viktor Medvedchukʼs estate in Pushcha-Vodytsia.
The list of seized property mentions three works by the Ukrainian and Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky. They are the most valuable and most expensive in the collection. According to experts, the cost of one painting ranges from $80 000 to $200 000. The price of two more paintings by Aivazovsky ranges from $5 000 to $3 million.
All art objects were handed over to the Kyiv Research Institute of Forensic Examinations.
In response to journalistsʼ requests to show Aivazovskyʼs paintings and evaluate them, the experts of the Institute showed only one of the three paintings by the artist listed in the list of confiscated property.
Art expert Iryna Khodchenko confirmed to "Investigation.Info" that this is Aivazovskyʼs painting. According to the expert, it can cost up to 100,000 hryvnias, which is significantly less than the price announced to journalists by independent experts.
"I wonder what the number will be in the final — official — examination?" — ask the investigators.
Slidstvo.Info also reports that in response to their inquiry regarding the further fate of Medvedchukʼs collection, the SBU noted that Viktor Medvedchukʼs property is currently under arrest and may be confiscated for the benefit of the state, as he is suspected of treason.
- Viktor Medvedchuk escaped from his estate in Kyiv on February 24, 2022 and has been hiding in the capital since then. On April 12, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the SBU managed to detain Medvedchuk. According to the SBU, the FSB of Russia tried to take Medvedchuk to the unrecognized Transnistria, and then to the Russian Federation. However, Medvedchuk was only able to reach the borders of the Kyiv region. His wife, Oksana Marchenko, left Ukraine before the start of a full-scale war.
- Medvedchuk asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to exchange him for defenders and residents of Mariupol, but Russia refused. Already on January 22, he was exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners of war.
- On January 10, 2023, Volodymyr Zelensky deprived Medvedchuk of his Ukrainian citizenship.