glass paintings before they were transported to Cologne. Without hesitation, Dr. Peter Füssenich, Dombaumeister of Cologne Cathedral, and Dr. Katrin Wittstadt, Head of the Glass Conservation Workshop at the Cologne Dombauhütte, offered their help with the conservation of the Kyiv panes in the run-up to the exhibition and with the scientific examination and restoration after the end of the presentation. We would also like to express our very warm thanks to all those who contributed to the realisation of the exhibition and the accompanying digital publication. Nicole Miller was responsible for the exhibition design, Manu Lange for the advertising and exhibition graphics, and Magnus Neumeyer for the design of the publication, for which Marion Mennicken of the Rheinisches Bildarchiv created numerous new images. The translations by Gérard Goodrow and KERN AG Sprachendienste contributed greatly to the success of the exhibition and publication. Last but not least, we would like to express our personal and heartfelt thanks to the curators at the Museum Schnütgen, Dr. Manuela Beer and Dr. Carola Hagnau, who took on this special project with great professionalism and sensitivity. Thanks to the friendly and cooperative collaboration with our colleagues, the curators Anastasia Matselo and Olena Kramareva in Kyiv, the exhibition of glass paintings could be opened just one year after the two museums first got in touch. We would like to express our sincere thanks to them, as well as to the many other colleagues in both museums who have contributed their knowledge and skills to this joint project with great dedication. Our highest appreciation goes to the courageous Khanenko team, who are doing everything they can for their museum in these difficult times. When two collections of stained glass come together in such circumstances, it is all about light and fragility: the fragility of objects, people and the world. And the light of hope. Dr. Yuliya Vaganova Director Khanenko Museum Dr. Martin Hoernes Secretary General Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung Dr. Moritz Woelk Director Museum Schnütgen in the museum world are fighting for their collections and the artworks entrusted to them. For them, it is not only about saving threatened works of art from destruction, but also about preserving their own Ukrainian identity. In the Khanenko Museum, which has often experienced the negative effects of political upheaval and armed conflict in the past hundred years of its existence, the museum team is doing everything it can to ensure that life in the museum continues even during the war: this includes small, sometimes only one-day exhibitions from the museum’s own collections of Ukrainian and international art from the 19th to the 21st centuries, interventions by contemporary artists, as well as concerts, readings and guided tours through the empty museum. The curators and scholars continue to conduct research and digitise their collections. The main activities of the Khanenko Museum currently include international projects aimed at exhibiting, researching and restoring works from the museum’s collection. In 2023, for example, a selection from the Khanenko Museum’s rare collection of Byzantine icons was presented at the Louvre in Paris. The current exhibition in Cologne marks a continuation of these activities and further raises the profile of the Khanenko Collection in Europe. For the first time in many decades, the precious stained-glass paintings from Kyiv are being presented together. They have been scientifically researched and will be conserved and restored after the exhibition in Cologne. That all of this is and remains possible in times of war is one of the main concerns of the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the HERMANN REEMTSMA STIFTUNG with their joint Ukraine funding programme, which was set up on 8 March 2022, just a few days after the start of the Russian war of aggression. The aim is to provide quick and unbureaucratic assistance to Ukrainian museums and cultural institutions to help ensure their continued security and stability, for example by supporting German museums in employing Ukrainian scholars who have fled the country. The close cooperation between the Khanenko Museum and the Museum Schnütgen is one example of this: not only is a valuable collection of stained glass being preserved, it is also being jointly researched by German and Ukrainian colleagues, made accessible to the public and thus preserved as part of Ukraine’s cultural identity. This also makes it one of the flagship projects of the UKRAINE funding line. Without the involvement of other sponsors, the project would not have been able to proceed as planned. We would therefore like to express our special thanks to the Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung and its director, Dr. Carla Cugini, for their trusting support. In addition to the funding provided by the City of Cologne, the Museum Schnütgen has once again received great support from the Freundeskreis Museum Schnütgen (Friends of the Museum Schnütgen). We would like to thank its chairman, Dr. Cornel Soltek, and all its members. In addition to generous financial support, this collaborative project has benefited from the remarkable solidarity of many colleagues. We have received exceptional support from the international research institution for medieval glass painting, Corpus Vitrearum Deutschland, which is sponsored by the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz: Dr. Elena Kosina and Dr. Ivo Rauch travelled to Kyiv to secure and pack the 11 10
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