Have the treasures from a Kyiv monastery been removed to be auctioned off in Paris?

euronews (in English)

A billboard in Paris is allegedly promoting the sale of precious icons that have been removed from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery. Many social media users are accusing Ukraine of selling these artefacts to raise money for the army. Euronews fact-checked these claims.

Transcript

00:00 have the treasures from a Kiev monastery been removed to be auctioned off in Paris.

00:05 Some social media users claim these precious works of art have been stolen to be sold to

00:10 the West in order to raise money for the Ukrainian army.

00:14 Let`s get down to the truth behind this.

00:21 Multiple social media users have been sharing this billboard allegedly promoting a sale

00:26 of relics from the Ukrainian monastery of Kiev Pesersky Lavra, organized by the French

00:32 auction house Ozena.

00:34 The poster claims the event will take place on October 1st, 2023.

00:39 Founded in the 11th century, the monastery is one of the largest in Ukraine and one of

00:43 the most important Christian pilgrimage centers in the world, according to UNESCO.

00:47 Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, authorities have been cracking down on the Russian Orthodox

00:51 Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine over its historic ties to the Kremlin.

00:56 The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has actively supported Russian President

01:00 Vladimir Putin in the war.

01:02 The church`s representatives in Ukraine have been accused of spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda.

01:07 One common and false pro-Russian narrative has been that Ukrainian President Volodymyr

01:11 Zelensky is selling off historic artworks to his allies in order to raise money to defend

01:17 Ukraine.

01:18 We reached out to the Ozenat auction house in the alleged billboard, but they did not

01:22 respond to our request in time.

01:24 However, in an interview with Reuters, the company`s spokesperson said the information

01:29 was completely false, adding, there will be no such auction as described in this picture.

01:35 When looking at their website, we found no upcoming event that mentions Ukrainian artifacts.

01:40 The next auction involving the Russian art department is scheduled for September 24th,

01:46 not October 1st.

01:47 In fact, the only planned auction for October 1st is the sale of Versailles furniture.

01:53 And by doing a reverse image search, we found that the billboard had actually been photoshopped.

01:57 The original image is this one, and it`s a stock photo of an outdoor urban advertisement

02:03 panel on the website Free Pick.

02:06 As you can see, the billboard itself as well as the background of the buildings are the

02:09 same.

02:11 For more fact checks and investigations, check out our website, Euronews.com.

02:15 (upbeat music)

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