Amid a devastating war, art restorers race to preserve Ukraine鈥檚 heritage
| Kyiv, Ukraine
Bent over a desk strewn with paints and brushes in her second-floor studio, Shustina Hanna works on an iconostasis known as the Royal Gates from St. George鈥檚 Church. The ornate screen of icons is the second one from St. George鈥檚 Church, in western Ukraine, that she and her colleagues have been painstakingly restoring while war continues in the country. The wooden church was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2013.
This afternoon, Ms. Hanna is attending to a fragment of a frame, applying paint, layer by layer, to a piece of glass on one side before flipping the screen over. She estimates that restoring this iconostasis, whose provenance dates to the 17th century, will take her a year.
Ms. Hanna studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv and has been a conservator at the National Research and Restoration Center of Ukraine for two decades. Her work on the iconostasis is 鈥渁 way to preserve a piece of our identity,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he Russians understand this, which is why they destroy everything they cannot appropriate.鈥�
Russia has targeted culturally significant places, including museums and heritage sites, either through bombings or looting. As the war drags on, Ms. Hanna and other conservators feel a heightened urgency. 鈥淲e clearly understand what we are fighting for,鈥� she says.
This article was supported by Women on the Ground: Reporting From Ukraine鈥檚 Unseen Frontlines, an initiative of the International Women鈥檚 Media Foundation, in partnership with The Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Dzvinka Pinchuk contributed reporting.
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