London to exhibit church artifacts seized from Lavra under Soviets

Gospel seized from the monks of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: Ministry of Culture

An exhibition of liturgical objects from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, seized from the monastery by the Bolsheviks, will open at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum on September 14, 2026. Most of the objects are now controlled by the Ukrainian state, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture.

The exhibition will feature two pairs of gilded silver Royal Doors, an icon, an altar Gospel in a silver cover, a diskos and a gilded chalice depicting the Crucifixion. The objects were crafted by Kyiv goldsmiths and have been kept for decades in the collections of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve after the Bolsheviks confiscated them from the Church.

The Royal Doors, meanwhile, are now owned by British businessman Arthur Gilbert. After the Lavra was looted during the Soviet era, they were sold abroad.

The exhibition is being organized jointly by the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve and the British museum and will run through September 17, 2027. The British side views the project as an opportunity to introduce the wider public to examples of Ukrainian Baroque church art.

As the UOJ reported, an exhibition of the Royal Doors taken from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra had previously been announced in Britain. The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve came under full state control after the lease agreement with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was terminated in 2023.

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