What they don’t destroy, they’ll steal.

The More than Poland Foundation is committed to helping
to save works of art and monuments in Ukraine.
We cordially invite you to cooperate – even the smallest amount matters …

Account number 45 1160 2202 0000 0002 7051 1460
BIC / SWIFT: BIGBPLPW

Russian barbarians razed Mariupol to the ground. According to the mayor of the city, Vadym Boychenko, more than 20,000 civilians have died since the Russian invasion of Mariupol. The half a million city, an important port on the Sea of Azov, an industrial and cultural center has turned into a sea of rubble.





Some believe that in the situation of murdering people, it is not the time to regret the damaged and lost works of art, but by creating the foundation “More than Poland”, we set ourselves the goal of protecting cultural heritage. So we cannot stay silent.
Russian soldiers have stolen works of outstanding painters, from Mariupol, incl. one of the most famous Russian marine painter, Ivan Aivazovsky. Among the stolen paintings is “Dawn on the coast of the Caucasus” by Aivazovsky and a sketch for the painting “Red Sunset on the Dnieper by Archip Kuinji”, an outstanding Mariupolan landscape painter of Greek origin. The original of the painting “Red Sunset on the Dnieper” is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Nice Art, Source: Facebook




How could the plunder be possible now, a month after the beautiful building of the Mariupol Fine Arts Museum was completely destroyed by Russian bombs? It is a sad story of betrayal and cooperation with the occupiers. At the beginning of the war, museum employees managed to secure and hide valuable paintings, which survived the bombing. Unfortunately, one of the officials knew the secret place where the works of art were hidden. She personally passed them on to the Russians, from hand to hand – Petro Andriushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol announced.
This is not the only Russian looting art from the city. On April 21, 2022, the occupiers took to Donetsk a unique collection of medals from the Museum of Medallic Art in Mariupol. The author of the medals is Yukhym Harabet, an artist-sculptor of Greek origin, known in Ukraine. After his death in 2004, Mariupol’s authorities established a museum on his behalf, and the artist’s widow donated a collection of 700 medals. The Russians stole them all. The widow, Svitlana Harabet, was killed under Russian bombs in early April.

Source: Ukrinform.net




A Russian air raid also wrecked the Mariupol museum of retro computers. One of the largest private collections of Soviet-era computers has been destroyed.
There were over 500 exhibits in the museum. Some were even from the 1950s. The owner collected them for 10 years and renovated them himself. Only photos left. Most of these Soviet artifacts were weak copies of Western equipment.

Source: Spiderweb.pl

The More than Poland Foundation is committed to helping to save works of art and monuments in Ukraine.
We cordially invite you to cooperate – even the smallest amount matters …

Account number 45 1160 2202 0000 0002 7051 1460
BIC / SWIFT: BIGBPLPW