The war in Ukraine is marching on through winter, presenting new challenges for the Ukrainian people, most of whom spent last week living without heat or electricity after new Russian airstrikes.
As of this month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimates that the conflict has resulted in more than 6,500 civilian casualties, and prompted a humanitarian crisis that’s led more than 7 million people to cross borders seeking refuge.
Given that dire reality, it’s easy to see why the lion’s share of philanthropic support for Ukraine has accrued to humanitarian efforts. But it’s also worth considering what the Ukrainian people are fighting for: the fierce independence and cultural identity that makes Ukraine Ukraine.
National identity is grounded in cultural objects and places that are part of the collective consciousness. In times of war, they become easy targets for delivering an outsized blow. Imagine for a moment how Americans would feel about seeing the Liberty Bell damaged beyond repair, or the National Gallery reduced to rubble.
That’s been the case in Ukraine, as reports fly of Russian air targeting from above, and looting on the ground.
Recently, the Getty Foundation partnered with ALIPH, the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas, on a Ukrainian Action Plan to help the country protect its cultural heritage from the tolls of war and severe weather. The $1 million commitment from Getty represents a full third of the support raised to date for the effort, along with the European Union and the Principality of Monaco.
Here’s more on how philanthropy can play a role in safeguarding the touchstones of cultural identity and protecting the basis of rebuilding when war has finally ended.
Psychological warfare
The psychology of targeting the things that represent a country’s cultural heritage has been weaponized as long as there’s been war, prompting international laws that specifically prohibit the destruction of cultural property as a means of intimidating people living under occupation, or as a military reprisal.
But that doesn’t mean destruction remains confined to state structures. Acts of terrorism, like the attack by the Taliban on the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in 2001, are often specifically designed to destabilize society by attacking the nation’s religious and cultural foundations.
For a problem as old as time, and one that affects all of humanity, global interventions were a long time coming. Today’s protections of cultural property during armed conflict stand on a 50-year-plus legal framework first formally established with the 1954 Hague Convention. To date, 133 countries have signed on as parties to the convention and its subsequent protocols and statutes. Another 110 have ratified the first protocol, which specifically addresses the treatment of movable objects. The U.S. is not among them.
The convention requires countries to take steps to protect their own cultural property, and requires an aggressor or occupying power to keep objects safe and return them once combat ends. Though the protocol attracts the eyes of the world to conflict zones, cultural targeting remains commonplace.
The legal framework handed UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, the responsibility of monitoring compliance and guardianship of cultural property. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, UNESCO has verified damage to 204 Ukrainian sites, including museums, historic buildings and monuments, places of worship, and libraries.
An alliance of the willing
The Getty Foundation’s partner, ALIPH, is a Geneva-based private foundation and international organization. The “alliance of the willing” was created in early 2017 as an instrument of international cooperation to protect cultural heritage in live-conflict and post-conflict areas of the world. ALIPH became operational in 2018, and has already mounted roughly 200 projects in more than 30 countries.
Its formation came at a time of growing international concern about the cultural fallout from acts of terrorism, particularly in the Middle East. ALIPH was founded by France and the United Arab Emirates before adding partnerships with China, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Morocco and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Philanthropist, businessman and art collector Thomas S. Kaplan leads its board, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Geneva’s Fondation Gandur Pour L’Art, and the Lionel Sauvage Family Foundations are among its supporters.
The organization takes a three-pronged approach to intervention: preventive protection to limit destruction, emergency security measures, and post-conflict engagement to ensure cultural heritage is returned to its citizens.
So far, ALIPH’s backing has allowed 160 collections in Ukraine to be packed and stored, including priceless examples of folk art, archaeological artifacts and religious icons. It has also allowed conservators to conduct 3D scanning of major monuments and other vulnerable sites.
A compelling example of its work is on the Khanenko Museum, Ukraine’s national museum of the arts. Sandra Bialystok, ALIPH’s director of communications and partnerships, said efforts there include protecting the collection by sending boxes for safe packing, and sending objects elsewhere within the country for safekeeping. The moves were timely. Just weeks ago, the building was targeted again during a bout of severe shelling. With the collection now completely safe, another grant is underway to help stabilize the building.
Getty steps up
The Getty Foundation carries out the philanthropy of the larger global operating foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust. The other three organizations under its umbrella are the Getty Conservation Institute, Getty Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Director Joan Weinstein, who was recently profiled by IP, said Getty is the only major foundation that supports art history and conservation on a “fully international basis.” Its unique structure allows it to apply an interdisciplinary approach to key areas across the trust, like art conservation and museum practices. To date, it has been involved in more than 8,000 grants in nearly 200 countries.
The Getty Foundation’s $1 million grant to ALIPH will support the improvement of the security of Ukrainian museum collections; an upgrade to larger storage spaces across the country; the deployment of preventive conservation measures for key sites and monuments; and the preparation of stabilization and conservation measures.
When it comes to conserving culture, Weinstein said the foundation has made grants over the years for collection and archeological site conservation, and invested in model projects to improve conservation around the world.
It has also been following the Ukraine conflict closely, watching as European museums in closer proximity provided supplies for safeguarding collections and sandbagging monuments, usually entering through Poland. Weinstein said the model relies on Ukrainian heritage professionals on the ground, reporting on urgent needs and priorities.
Getty “saw a situation where our help could be critical,” as winter is coming, putting objects at greater risk. She explained that many collections were initially moved to basements for storage at the outset of the war. Now wintry weather has created damp conditions that necessitate repacking and dehumidification.
Against headlines of looting by Russian soldiers, Weinstein said a photo evidence model is also essential, and often missing in smaller institutions. Archiving is necessary to shore up future claims.
A place for philanthropy
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warns citizens to brace for new airstrikes, we asked Getty for its take on philanthropy’s role in cultural preservation. Weinstein said that while the foundation hasn’t provided funding in a conflict zone before, it sees the move as aligned with fighting the abuse of cultural heritage within a proto-authoritarian context that “we’re now seeing play out on the ground in Ukraine, with symbols and memory targeted by Russians.”
Answering the same question, ALIPH’s Bialystok said, “This war particularly is a specific war on identity, waged with the intention of trying to erase Ukraine’s sense of country,” a fragile construct that traces back centuries, but was only achieved in 1991.
Funders should also know that waging war on identity has human consequences. “Identity is a key victim of this war,” said Bialystok. “By chipping away at history and identity, people are also erased.”
The erasure carries beyond the borders of a single country to humanity writ large. “Cultural heritage can disappear quickly. If we don’t protect it, we lose an important part of human identity,” she said.