Art wrapped up and secretly loaded onto trucks before being swept to the border while missiles rained down on Kyiv. That's exactly how more than fifty Ukranian modernist masterpieces made their way to the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain.

November 25, 2022 was one of the heaviest days of aerial bombardment that Kyiv had suffered during the war, but it was the day of its greatest art escape ever too.

The great Ukrainian art escape

Precious and priceless, these avant-garde paintings were rescued from Kyiv and taken to the European Union via the Polish border. It was the largest-ever legal transfer of art from a wartime country.

The name of the exhibition is 'Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900 - 1930s' and it will tour around Europe.

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The collection includes work created during a significant period in Ukraine's modern history, the Ukrainian War of Independence between 1917–21. It is a period that helped forge Ukraine's national identity and the art reflects that. 

"We have to keep them safe for the future. These works were in danger, and I believe that it was very important to bring them to safety," Marta Ruiz del Arbol told CGTN. She is the curator of modern art at the museum in Madrid.

"Because culture is very important for a nation. It is memory and its symbols, and they were already in danger, so now we have to keep them safe for the future," she added. 

'We need to let the art speak'

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke via a video recorded message at the inauguration of the exhibition. "More than ever, we need to let the art speak to say what cannot be said in any other language but only in the art language," he said.

There has been huge interest in the exhibition since its opening, with visitors filling the exhibition halls daily.

"I can see Picasso and I can see Ukrainian masters... I'm really proud," one young visitor told CGTN, with tears in her eyes. She comes from Kharkiv in the Ukraine, and had escaped to safety in Spain. She did not want CGTN to use her name. 

"I can see Picasso and I can see Ukrainian masters and I think that my culture is worth to be here. I think it's great that the world gives us the keys to represent our culture," she says.

Jose, a tourist from the U.S. told CGTN another incredible story.

"There's so much to be gathered just by looking at the paintings... of the pogrom, he said. "That's an important thing that shaped who I am. My great-grandmother was Jewish, they snuck out of Kyiv, they snuck onto a boat, they emigrated to America because there was a lot of violence happening to Jews. That's an important story to tell and that's an important thing that shaped who I am... I wouldn't be here today if that didn't happen. So it's important to remember those experiences and make sure they survive into the future. Sometimes a lot of art that is important to a community and important to an identity doesn't get driven out by a truck, it just gets bombed and people forget about it," Jose pointed out.