Customs officials try to smuggle a rare collection of Ukrainian photography magazines from the 1940s to China
Kyiv • UNN
Among the journals that were to be taken away were copies from the Vernadsky Library and copies from the personal archive of Academician Bohomolets.
Customs officers stopped the export of a collection of printed publications from the forties of the twentieth century. UNN writes about this with reference to Kyiv Customs.
Details
It is reported that Kyiv customs officers stopped an international mail shipment from Vinnytsia region to China with a collection of Soviet Photo magazines and photographer's reference books published in 1929-1941.
To determine whether the publications belong to cultural property, they were sent for examination to the National Museum of History of Ukraine.
According to the experts, the magazines have not only cultural but also historical, artistic and scientific value. At the same time, the collection of materials submitted for examination has the characteristics of a collection. It includes a binder of Soviet Photo magazines from 1938-1941, 21 Soviet Photo magazines from the same period, and two photographer's reference calendars from 1929-1931.
According to museum experts, these reference calendars are among the first specialized Soviet publications devoted to various aspects of photography. The publication "Soviet Photo" can be considered a unique testament to both general Soviet and Ukrainian Soviet history.
The information contained on the pages of the publication is valuable for researchers of the history of photography, the development of techniques and means of photo reporting
It is noted that some of the textual material and photographic illustrations in the magazines reflected the ideological foundations of the Soviet totalitarian state, while the publications are a valuable historical source for researchers of Soviet everyday life and the peculiarities of Soviet totalitarian propaganda.
Taking into account all these arguments and the considerable interest in the publication among collectors, experts state its historical, artistic, scientific, and cultural value.
Among other things, many copies of the journal bear stamp impressions indicating that they belonged to the State Public Library of the Ukrainian SSR (the modern Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine). The surviving stamps and inventory numbers do not contain any notes on redemption, which means that they were probably not removed from the library's records. One of the copies has a stamp that may indicate that it belonged to academician Oleh Bohomolets, which gives this copy a memorial value.
According to the current legislation of Ukraine, the export of cultural property abroad requires a certificate. The customs officers were not provided with such a permit. Therefore, the cultural property was seized, and a report on violation of customs rules was drawn up against the citizen who sent it abroad, and the case file will be sent to court.
