At the initiative of the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office, a list of cultural values exported from the territory of Belarus during the World War II has been compiled.
These artifacts are subject to return, the Prosecutor General’s Office noted. The list includes 694 cultural objects. Among them are icons, paintings, books, sculptures and objects of decorative and applied art. They want to return, among other things, the cross of Euphrosyne of Polotsk, made in 1161 by the master Lazar Bogsha, and the Slutsk belts.
Only single copies and fragments of such belts have been preserved in Belarus now. There are also such relics on the list as the keys of Mahilou and the sleigh of Napoleon Bonaparte.
“This list is not final – the work on identifying lost cultural values, determining their value and repatriation to Belarus continues,” the Prosecutor General’s Office added.
The department believes that the lost values are located in such countries as “the United States of America, the State of Israel, Ukraine, the Republic of Poland and others.”
For some reason, Russia is not on this list, although, according to one version, it was to Moscow that the cross of Euphrosyne of Polotsk was taken. In particular, professor Adam Maldis spoke about this when the Slutsk Gospel was discovered in Moscow.