RIHA International Association of Research Institutes in the History of Art - STATEMENT ON UKRAINE

On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation launched a full-scale offensive against Ukraine. Two years on, the ongoing war still poses a threat to the survival of the Ukrainian population and its rich cultural heritage, with almost all the country’s major cities under regular bombardment.

In this very worrying context, RIHA reiterates its full solidarity with the entire Ukrainian scientific community, in particular the art history community, and with all those caught up in the conflict, who have often had to leave their homes and workplaces in dramatic conditions. Extremely concerned for the safety of its colleagues, peers and friends in the country, it pledges to continue to help students, teachers, curators, restorers and other heritage professionals in any way it can.

RIHA is determined to multiply initiatives aimed at keeping alive the cultural wealth of Ukraine, and to support all actions undertaken to promote a broadened and decolonized vision of Ukrainian art history in international academic studies.

RIHA calls on the international scientific community to free itself from colonial perceptions, and to acknowledge Ukraine’s unique cultural identity, born of a complex historical context that has produced a blend of national Ukrainian, Cossack culture with Polish, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Jewish and other components, all too often neglected or misinterpreted. It advocates for a better representation and contextualisation of Ukrainian art history and, in particular, urges museum professionals to combat the insidious nature of object labelling, which unwittingly perpetuates imperial narratives. RIHA is at their side to conduct in-depth and well-documented research into the collections in their care, in order to ensure a finer knowledge and fairer understanding of Ukraine’s multifaceted cultural heritage.

Finally, RIHA lends its unwavering support to all populations whose cultural heritage is suffering a similar fate in any part of the world.

List of institutional signatories:

• Bibliotheca-Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Roma
• The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• Danmarks Kunstbibliotek, (The Danish National Art Library), Copenhagen
• Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte (Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art), Paris
• Fondazione Federico Zeri, Università di Bologna
• Institut national d’histoire de l’art, Paris
• Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium – Institut Royal du Patrimoine artistique – Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA), Brussels
• Ústav dejín umenia SAV (Institute of Art History of Slovak Academy of Sciences), Bratislava
• Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk (Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Warsaw
• Ústav dějin umění Akademie věd České republiky (IAH CAS, Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences), Prague
• Institut za povijest umjetnosti (Institute of Art History), Zagreb
• Instituto Amatller de Arte Hispánico, Barcelona
• Instituto de História da Arte, Lisboa
• Kunstiteaduse ja Visuaalkultuuri Instituut (Institute of Art History and Visual Culture, Estonian Academy of Arts), Tallinn
•  Institutul de Istoria Artei “George Oprescu” (“George Oprescu” Institute for Art History, Romanian Academy), Bucureşti
• Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Centre), Krakow
• Institut für kunst- und musikhistorische Forschungen an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (IKM, The Institute for History of Art and Musicology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), Wien
• Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck-Institut, Firenze
• Latvijas Mākslas akadēmijas Mākslas vēstures institūts (Art Academy of Latvia Institute of Art History), Riga
• HUN-REN Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Művészettörténeti Intézet (Institute of Art History, HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities), Budapest
• Nasjonalmuseet (The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design), Oslo
• Nationalmuseum (The Nationalmuseum of Fine Arts), Stockholm
• Power Institute for Art & Visual Culture, The University of Sydney
• RKD - Netherlands Institute for Art History, Den Haag
• Rubenianum, Antwerpen
• Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (SIK-ISEA), Zürich
• Terra Foundation for American Art Paris Center
• Visual Arts Research Institute Edinburgh (VARIE), Edinburgh
• The Warburg Institute, London