Five ancient icons were to be smuggled from Ukraine to the United States

Five ancient icons of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including a Borysivka, an Old Believer and a silvered icon, were to be exported from Ukraine, the State Customs Service reported on Tuesday, UNN reports.

Details

The icons were discovered during the customs control of three international mail shipments that were reportedly heading out of Ukraine, from Kropyvnytskyi to the United States.

"Given the obvious signs of antiquity, customs officers sent some of the icons to the National Art Museum of Ukraine and some to the National Museum of History of Ukraine for an examination of the possible belonging of the shrines to cultural property. According to the museums' experts, all the icons have cultural and historical value," the agency said.

Of the five icons provided for the study, one was identified as "St. Nicholas the Wonderworker" from the early twentieth century. "The shrine can be attributed to the famous Borysivka school of icon painting. It is worth recalling that the Borysivka settlement, where the icon was made, was once a major iconographic center in the Ukrainian Slobozhanshchyna, and now it is a historical and cultural phenomenon. The Borysivka icons are considered unique due to the originality of the iconography technique, decor, and iconographic interpretation," the ministry said.

Reportedly, the second icon was identified by experts as a nineteenth-century Old Believer metal icon "Image of the Holy Prophet Elijah" decorated with blue enamel. The experts also identified the icon "Resurrection of the Lord" from the late nineteenth century, which was made using the silvering technique. The other two icons - "Saint Archangel Michael" of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and "Saint John the Warrior" of the early twentieth century - were made in iconographic and craft workshops according to the established pattern in accordance with the iconographic canons in the Russian Empire.

Under current Ukrainian law, exporting cultural and historical property abroad requires permits from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. As indicated, the customs officers were not provided with such documents. The icons were seized.