Ausstellungseröffnung "Licht in dunklen Zeiten. Mittelalterliche Glasmalerei aus dem Khanenko Museum in Kyjiw"

In the organizer's words:

The Museum Schnütgen is presenting a precious selection of stained glass from the Khanenko Museum in Kyiv (Kiev), which will be on display outside Ukraine for the first time. They will be staged in the stained glass room in dialog with stained glass from the Museum Schnütgen.

The exhibition focuses on around 30 works from both museum collections. A total of twelve glass paintings have been loaned to Cologne from the Khanenko Museum, which were produced in glass workshops in France, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands between the 13th and 17th centuries. This is the entire collection of the Kyiv Museum, which is to be conserved and restored in Cologne with the help of the Dombauhütte.

The reason for the exhibition is the impending loss of many works of art due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, which began in 2022. The Khanenko Museum in Kyiv, whose beginnings date back to around the same time that Alexander Schnütgen was building up his medieval collection in Cologne, was already affected by a missile strike in the immediate vicinity in the first year of the war. Many works of art were saved just in time, including the high-caliber stained glass collection, which is particularly vulnerable to shocks.

In December 2024, the stained glass from Kyiv arrived safely in Cologne after being transported through the war zone. They had previously been secured and packed in Ukraine by a team of experts from Corpus Vitrearum Germany.

The exhibition project also includes the scientific cataloging of the glass paintings in Kyiv, which have hardly been researched to date, in a digital publication.
It is not only a contribution to the rescue of European cultural assets, but also a sign of solidarity and support.

Speaking at the opening:

• Dr. Moritz Woelk, Director, Museum Schnütgen
• Dr. Ralph Elster, Mayor, City of Cologne
• Dr. Yuliya Vaganova, Director, Khanenko Museum
• Dr. Martin Hoernes, Secretary General, Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation
• Dr. Carla Cugini, Managing Director, Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation
• Dr. Manuela Beer and Dr. Carola Hagnau, curators of the exhibition, Museum Schnütgen
• Dr. Cornel Soltek, Chairman, Freundeskreis Museum Schnütgen e.V.
• Tamara Lukasheva (*1988, Odesa) will play the grand piano for you.