In June 2025, Russian-language Telegram channels reported on an incident that allegedly occurred in one of the European cities due to the fault of two Ukrainian citizens. We have checked the correctness of such publications.
Viral posts report that in one of the European museums, a married couple from Ukraine waited until the caretaker left to take photos with one of the exhibits - a chair encrusted with Swarovski crystals. At some point, the man tried to sit on this chair, and it fell apart, after which the Ukrainians hastily left the room. The publications are accompanied by a video depicting the incident, and the text of the posts themselves provides justifications for the troublemakers. A woman named Oksana allegedly asked the authorities not to deport them, and also reported that they received tickets to the museum through the refugee program. Her husband, the unemployed Mykola, explained his action with the desire to take a photo for his family and show them the “chic life” in Europe.
The main platform where the news about the incident with the Ukrainians spread was Telegram - there, among others, it was published by the channels "Russian Kolobok and green stick"(194,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Uncle Slava" (191,000), "Observer"(179,000), "Bottle» (178,000) and Voblya (131,000).
The video that went viral on Telegram is genuine. Incident happened in the Maffei Palace in Verona, where since 2020 exhibited part of the art collection of industrialist Luigi Carlone. The exhibition juxtaposes antique paintings with examples of contemporary art, such as a chair created by Italian artist Nicola Bolla and decorated with Swarovski crystals. In shape it imitates a chair with paintings Vincent van Gogh, which is why it was named after the Dutch impressionist.
He was the first to report an unpleasant incident with this piece of art on June 12 on his Facebook page. museum in the Maffei Palace, he also published a video from CCTV cameras. “The nightmare of every museum has become a reality,” said the publication, the authors of which called for respect for objects of art. It was also reported that restorers managed to restore the precious chair. The incident itself clarify Media, happened back in April.
“Verified” studied publications about the “Van Gogh Chair” in authoritative sources and found no mention in them that the perpetrators of the incident were Ukrainians. Moreover, these notes directly state that the couple left the museum before its employees noticed something was wrong, and the identities of the man and woman were not established. In Russian-language Telegram channels, during the first day and a half of distribution, the news was also not contained information about the nationality of careless visitors.
In a conversation with Verified, the deputy director of the museum in the Maffei Palace, Rada Kratchanova, said: “The museum wrote a statement to the police against unknown people. Neither their identity nor citizenship has been established. Therefore, any information that attributes names or nationalities to the couple who damaged the artwork is unreliable.”
Thus, reports about Ukrainian refugees breaking an exhibit in an Italian museum, as well as quotes from these people, turned out to be fiction. The earliest such publication that “Verified” could find appeared in the pro-Russian Telegram channel “Baba Yaga vs.» June 15 at 19:05 Moscow time, three days after the message from the museum itself.
This is not the first time that pro-Kremlin media have accused Ukrainian refugees in Europe of various offenses and when such reports are not confirmed. For example, in 2023 Telegram channels told about a Ukrainian who allegedly damaged a statue in one of the galleries in Paris. Like this news, that information turned out to be fake.
Cover photo: social networks
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