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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent

Ukrainian art convoy defies Russian bombs to go on display in Madrid

An artwork is prepared before being taken to Madrid’s Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza for the forthcoming exhibition In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1920-1930
An artwork is prepared before being taken to Madrid’s Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza for the forthcoming exhibition In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1920-1930. Photograph: Supplied

A secret convoy of two trucks containing 51 rare works of art slipped out of Kyiv early last Tuesday, hours before waves of Russian missiles began raining down on the capital and other cities across Ukraine.

A mission to transport the works west to Lviv, across the border to Poland and then 3,000km across Europe to Madrid was unexpectedly hazardous, even for wartime. Much of the country was plunged into darkness as energy infrastructure came under fire. Lviv was targeted as the trucks passed through.

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