On July 19, around 11:00 a.m., a woman who introduced herself as Nataliya Leonidovna and called herself the "new director" came to the premises of the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Kherson Art Museum, accompanied by four representatives of the FSB and the Russian police.

The current director of the Art Museum, Alina Dotsenko, informed the Suspilne about this.

"The so-called "new management" began its activities by opening the funds. A little later, the pseudo-director changed the museum's security to "her own" and announced her intention to search the employee who performs the duties of the chief custodian. Even though the employee herself was in the museum at that time. For almost five months, the team feared for the fate of the building and the collection and hoped that the unrepresentative state of repair of the architectural monument and the absence of exhibits in the halls would not attract the attention of representatives of the "Russian world" and their local collaborators." said Alina Dotsenko.

According to her, these "art connoisseurs" have already shown interest in the collection of the Art Museum, although there was no attempt on the property of the Ukrainian state. From now on, the works of art and the museum building are under threat.

Kherson Art Museum was opened on May 27, 1978. It is housed in the former city hall building, an architectural monument of the early 20th century. The museum's collection includes more than 10 thousand exhibits. Here are the works of Ukrainian and foreign painting, graphics, sculpture, arts and crafts, starting with samples of Russian icon painting of the 17th century and up to the works of contemporary Kherson artists.