While the center of Madrid is shielded to celebrate the NATO summit, 10 kilometers east of the city, in the municipality of Coslada, three trucks with Polish license plates are preparing to leave.
Painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag —yellow cabin and blue trailer—, as the morning of this Monday passed, the trailers were filled with cardboard boxes, packages of insulating tape, fire extinguishers, rolls of bubble wrap... Everything what is necessary to dismantle a museum and safeguard its works of art.
With the Russian offensive still active, which is already more than 120 days old, the Zelensky government has called on European countries to provide them with these materials, which are out of stock both in their country and in those closest to them.
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Protect art in Ukraine from Russian bombs
The result of the operation, under the name of
Professionals and museums with Ukraine,
is 200 cubic meters of boxes and 12,500 kilos of material, which have been collected from 15 collaborating institutions in just two months.
In the three trucks, packing crates, pallets, polyethylene foam sheets, picture corners or silica gel bottles predominate.
Likewise, computer equipment has also been obtained, also useful for the inventory of museums, such as external hard drives, tablets, computers and mobile phones.
A consignment of 300 fire extinguishers stands out, an element that has become very precious and is sold at an exorbitant price on the national black market.
In it, everyday objects such as a cardboard box have become very valuable.
Loading of the three trucks chartered by ICOMOS and Correos to transport material to Ukraine for the protection and transfer of works of art from the country at war.KIKE PARA
Teresa Reyes, president of ICOM Spain (International Council of Museums), tells in front of the trucks that the distress call was received in May: "The colleagues from Ukraine explained to us the situation they were going through and told us that they needed materials from conservation, packing boxes and everything necessary to dismantle the museums of their country, because they had run out of material, both they and the surrounding countries”.
Poland has been one of those that has turned from the first moment to its neighbor.
It has already invested more than a million euros in the prevention of art, but the shortage of materials due to the war has forced them to resort to other states, such as France and Denmark, which have also sent resources.
“Prices have gone up a lot.
so they ended up asking for collaboration from the different countries that were at the meeting.
As a result of that, we started with the project”, details Reyes.
He clarifies that it would have been much easier to send only a financial contribution —something that has also been done—, but that the problem was that there was nowhere to buy that material because everything was sold out in the area.
Given the challenge that he posed, it was expected to be able to send a truck at most, but thanks to the collaboration of museums from all over the country, three have been filled.
Among them, the Institute of Cultural Heritage of Spain, the Guggenheim Museum, the Association of Museologists and Museographers of Andalusia or the Prado Museum.
Loading of the three trucks chartered by ICOMOS and Correos to transport material to Ukraine for the protection and transfer of works of art from the country at war.KIKE PARA
To have been able to carry out the shipment, expert companies in art transport have also collaborated, such as SIT, which has already dealt with the transfer of the
Guernica
to the Reina Sofía, and from whose headquarters the fleet departed this Monday.
“Finally, Correos has been of great help, which has been the one that has chartered the three trucks to take them to Ukraine.
One of them completely free of charge and the other two at a very competitive price that we pay between the Spanish delegations of ICOM and ICOMOS”.
Previously, the Spanish courier company had already sent more shipments with humanitarian aid to Ukraine, so they had the experience and training to solve it.
The truck drivers are Poles, because in the current situation someone with another nationality and who does not speak the language would have more problems when crossing the borders of the Ukrainian country.
The trucks will arrive on Friday at the warehouse of the Agency for Strategic Reserves, located in the Polish city of Komorowo, from where it will be distributed to the Ukrainian cities and museums that require the material.
Now five days on the road await them to save the heritage of a country.
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