Finland’s most significant art museum, the Ateneum, has announced a revision of the nationality of the famous artist Ilya Repin. According to the museum’s decision, Ilya Repin is now recognized not as a Russian but as a Ukrainian.
The decision to make this change was made after more than two years of discussions and research that followed a significant exhibition of Repin’s works in 2021. At that exhibition, it was noted that the artist, born in the territory of modern Ukraine, was presented as a Russian.
Ukrainian journalist Anna Lodygina and musician Lukasz Stasewski, also of Ukrainian descent, have been working to restore historical justice to Repin’s ethnicity. Lodygina, researching the period of Repin’s life in Finland, presented documentary evidence of his Ukrainian roots, and these materials proved crucial for the museum.
Timo Guusko, the curator of the Ateneum, said that the decision to change Repin’s nationality was made when the new exhibition “A Question of Time” was being prepared. Now, under Repin’s painting in the museum, it is stated that he is a Ukrainian artist.
