A Museum in Times of War

The Lenbachhaus in Munich invites you to a lecture on a current topic: On Monday, 17 October, at 7.30 pm, Yuliya Vaganova will talk about her work as a museum director and the value of museums in times of war. Vaganova is the director of the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts in Kiev, a partner city of Munich. The event will take place in the Georg Knorr Saal and in English.

Vaganova explains her motivation for the trip to Munich: »For the museums in Ukraine, the war began in 2014. Even then, the first houses were damaged and collections were moved out. I was working at the National Art Museum of Ukraine at the time. In winter there were barricades and burning car tyres in front of our doors. And we wondered if the museum had to be a nuclear power plant to convince the world to protect it? − Today we see that even nuclear power plants are no longer a red line.
My lecture is about the role of museums in war, it is about what cultural institutions can do in such extreme times and conditions. And about the question of whether it is possible to protect cultural assets.«