In July 2023, there were reports on the Internet that Paris will soon take place “Treasures of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra” and the posters of the event were already hung in the French capital. We checked the reliability of these publications.

On July 12, 2023, Tsargrad TV channel published in its social networks ("VKontakte","Classmates" Telegram, "Zen”) A note called“ Treasures of the Lavra will leave the hammer. In Paris, an auction of Orthodox shrines was announced. ” The text reported that the values from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra have already been taken abroad through the mediation of UNESCO and will soon be put up for auction in France. A photograph was attached as confirmation to the posts, which allegedly captures a poster advertising the future auction in Paris. This picture in Telegram also shared, for example, channels "Rita Ebzeeva"(140,000 views at the time of writing this analysis),"Sheikh Tamir"(152 000) and"Alexander Semchenko"(90 000). Leading Solovyov Live Sergey Karnaukhov in his channel (32,000 views) He emphasized: “What is characteristic, anyone who wants to see on the official website of the auction can familiarize this information.”

The news of the Paris auction spread about two weeks after the statement of the head of the foreign intelligence of the Russian Federation Sergey Naryshkin about the agreement, allegedly reached between the Ukrainian authorities and representatives of UNESCO and providing for the export of Orthodox values from the territory of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. It was argued that they would be transferred for temporary storage to European museums under the pretext of salvation from Russian missile strikes. At the same time, the head of the SVR did not give any evidence to his words. Its statements refuted The Minister of Culture of Ukraine Alexander Tkachenko, director of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve Maxim Ostapenko and spokesman UNESCO Tom Muller, and in a month and a half no evidence that the relics of saints and other relics were really transported to France, Italy, Germany and the Vatican.

The only evidence used by the authors of publications on the upcoming sale of objects from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is a photograph of the poster allegedly placed on the streets of Paris. Judging by this poster, trading is organized by the Russian art department of the Osenat auction house, and they will be held on October 1. At the same time, there is no announcement about such an auction on the Osenat website, and the only trading this year is Russian art pass September 24, although there really were really planned On October 1.

Our colleagues from Reuters agency asked Representatives of the auction house comment on reports on the sale of values from the Kyiv monastery. “There will not be such an auction, as described in this photo,” said Osenat, calling information about the upcoming trading “completely false”. A similar answer to your request received And the Stopfake project.

"Independent newspaper" Turned For a comment directly to the head of the Russian art department Osenat to Sergey Volkov. He said that the auction was really originally planned on October 1, but the allegations of the upcoming sale of values from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra are “completely false and slanderous information”. Volkov separately noted that the photograph used as confirmation was hardly taken in France, because "it is visible on it of yellow traffic lights, which are not in the country."

The suspicions of the Osenat employee confirmed the REUTERS factor. They proved that the advertising stand with the poster of the upcoming auction never existed in Paris or in another French city - the basis of a viral image I became Stock picture from photobank Freepik.

The earliest publication about the auction allegedly preparing in France, which was “verified”-a post in the Telegram channel Zanoza (12,000 views), posted on July 12 at 13:11 Moscow time. "Tsargrad" and most of the more popular bloggers shared news only in the evening of the same day.

Thus, reports about the auction planned for autumn, at which relics from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra will be sold, do not correspond to reality, and the only confirmation used by the distributors of this information is fabricated. Apparently, the goal of creating a fake was to reinforce the narrative about the irresponsible attitude of the Ukrainian authorities towards the Orthodox shrines, which is actively supported by Russian officials, the state media and the pro -Khmorelev bloggers.

Photo on the cover: Portable Antiquets Scheme / Wikimedia Commons