Ateneum, Finland’s largest art museum, began calling artist Ilya Repin Ukrainian after a call from prominent figures in Ukraine. This was reported by Suomen kuvalehti.
The Russian painter’s paintings arrived in Finland after a major exhibition held in 2021 at the Athenaeum together with the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Russian Art.
Last June, American Conservative Party (TAC) columnist Kathy Sedgwick accused Ukrainian activists are attempting to “de-Russianize Russian art.”
Last year, Sedgwick noted, Ukrainians began making regular corrections to online databases and contacting museums in Western countries to request that Polish, Jewish and Russian artists cite their nationality. For example, they were asked to do this in relation to the American artist Andy Warhol, whose relatives were Carpathian Indians.
New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in March of the same year announced Ukrainian artists Arkhip Kuindzhi, Ilya Repin and Ivan Aivazovsky.
Formerly the Metropolitan Museum changed The title of the painting by French artist Edgar Degas was changed from “Russian Dancer” to “Dancer in a Ukrainian Dress”.