Stolen Royal Doors from Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra to be displayed in Britain

Eighteenth-century gilded Royal Doors from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum

In the spring of 2026, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will present the Royal Doors from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, which were stolen from Ukraine in the 1920s, The Art Newspaper reported, citing The Times.

The items will be displayed as part of the expanded Gilbert Galleries, which will explore Nazi and Soviet art plunder. Among the exhibits are two pairs of gilded silver Royal Doors from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, previously thought to have been lost.

The Royal Doors were crafted by master Alexei Timofei Ishchenko around 1784 on the commission of Russian Empress Catherine II. After the Lavra was looted in the 1920s, the doors disappeared and resurfaced only in 1935, when media magnate William Randolph Hearst purchased them from art dealers S. and J. Goldschmidt.

In addition to the exhibition itself, the provenance of the doors will be the focus of a separate academic conference to be held in September 2026 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Researchers will discuss the fate of Ukraine’s ecclesiastical heritage in the context of losses inflicted by the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.

Organizers emphasize that the purpose of the exhibition is not only to display rare artifacts but also to remind the public of the need to return cultural treasures taken from Ukraine during revolutions and wars.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the reserve celebrated the 99th anniversary of the Bolsheviks’ establishment of a museum in the Lavra.

Read also