Khanenko Museum

The Khanenko Museum, officially the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts, is an art museum located in Kyiv, Ukraine. It holds the largest and most valuable collection of European, Asian, and Ancient art in the country. Established in 1919, the institution originated from the private collection of Ukrainian philanthropists Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko. Today, the museum's holdings comprise more than 25,000 items, with nearly 1,000 selected artworks displayed permanently across two late 19th-century buildings on Tereshchenkivska Street.

The museum traces its origins to the 1870s when Bohdan Khanenko, an aristocrat with a passion for Old Masters, married Varvara Tereshchenko, who inherited a devotion to charity and the arts from her prominent businessman father. Over forty years, the couple traveled extensively throughout Europe, acquiring art to build one of the finest private collections in the Russian Empire. In the 1900s, they donated several thousand items to establish Kyiv's first public museum. To realize their life's ambition of founding an international art museum, Bohdan signed a will in April 1917 stipulating the collection would become public. Following his death, Varvara signed a Deed of Gift in December 1918, transferring the collection, house, and library to the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, with the condition that the collection remain indivisible. The State Museum of Art officially opened in their house in 1919, with art historian Georgy Lykomsky as its first curator and Varvara chairing the Museum Committee until her death. In 1924, the Khanenkos' names were removed from the museum title due to a lack of revolutionary services. The collection later suffered losses during World War II, when approximately 350 paintings, 2,000 prints, and 500 decorative pieces were lost, though many hidden objects survived, allowing the museum to reopen in November 1944.

The core of the museum consists of the Khanenkos' collection, focused on the heyday of European national artistic schools, Asian fine and decorative arts, and ancient artifacts. The permanent exhibition of European fine and decorative arts from the 14th through the 18th century is housed in the Khanenkos' mansion, while the first floor displays Ancient art, including small but significant collections of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian artifacts. Since 2006, a nearby building has housed the permanent Asian art exhibition across four rooms dedicated to the art of Buddhism, Islam, China, and Japan. The Asian holdings were significantly enriched in 1959 and 1960 by over 400 classical Chinese paintings from Kyiv-based artist Taissija Jaspar, partially acquired by the state and partially gifted. The museum also holds highly valuable collections of European sculpture and decorative art, as well as Iranian, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese pieces.

The museum's Old Master gallery features original works by outstanding European painters, including Peter Paul Rubens, Gentile Bellini, Juan de Zurbaran, Jacques-Louis David, and Francois Boucher. The Italian painting collection includes works by Barnaba da Modena, Giovanni Bellini, Pietro Perugino, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Flemish and Dutch holdings feature Frans Hals, Jacob Jordaens, and David Teniers the Younger. A separate room in the mansion has displayed a group of unique early Byzantine Sinai icons from the 6th and 7th centuries since 2004. Additionally, the museum preserves a ceiling by Mikhail Vrubel, noted as his first profane decoration work.

The museum comprises two late 19th-century buildings of great historical and artistic value located on Tereshchenkivska Street in the Shevchenko district of central Kyiv. The main building, the Khanenkos' mansion, was constructed in 1882 in the style of an Italian palazzo. It features sumptuous interiors with stucco details, antique furniture, and elegant decor reminiscent of European palaces. The second building, located nearby, was the property of the Sakhnovskys, close relatives of the Khanenkos, until 1919. On October 10, 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Russian missile struck near the museum, leaving a large crater and blowing out most of the building's windows with glass shards.

The Khanenko Museum is located at 15 Tereshchenkivska Street in Kyiv. Following the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022, the museum dismantled and secured its main permanent collection to preserve it, making the primary holdings temporarily unavailable. Despite this and the October 2022 missile damage, the institution remains open and serves as a wartime community hub. It hosts temporary exhibitions, such as Meanwhile, at the Khanenko House, which fills the empty vitrines with works by contemporary Ukrainian artists. The museum also offers educational programs, masterclasses, and specialized tours like Shadows and walls, which focus on the history and architecture of the emptied building. Information materials in English are available for international visitors, and the museum offers free admission on the first Wednesday of each month.