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Press Release on the Handover of the ARK III Station to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra
On May 25, the ARK III mobile digitisation station was officially handed over in Kyiv to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve. The official handover took place in the presence of Ivan Verbytskyi, First Deputy Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine; Anastasiia Bodnar, Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalization; Benjamin Žiga, Deputy Head of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ukraine; Michal Lukeš, Director General of the National Museum of the Czech Republic; Luboš Veselý, Director of the Karel Komárek Family Foundation; a representative of the Kozytskyi Charitable Foundation; and Maksym Ostapenko, Director General of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve.
The project was developed through the cooperation of the National Museum of the Czech Republic, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, and the Karel Komárek Family Foundation, and forms part of long-term efforts aimed at protecting Ukrainian cultural heritage endangered by war.
ARK III is a mobile workstation designed to create highly precise digital copies of museum collections and cultural heritage objects directly within institutions and in the field. Combining 3D scanning and photogrammetry technologies, the station enables the documentation of both small artefacts and large-scale objects, including detailed digital records intended for research, documentation, and future restoration purposes.
“The National Museum of the Czech Republic is helping Ukraine through concrete actions. Since the very first days of the war, we have been striving to support our Ukrainian colleagues, who are protecting their cultural heritage with extraordinary courage and dedication, even in the face of daily threats. The ARK III project is the next step in this support effort, bringing modern technology directly to where it is needed most. We greatly appreciate the support of the Karel Komárek Family Foundation, thanks to which this project was able to come to fruition. I am also very pleased that I was able to personally hand over the ARK III station to my friend, Director Maksym Ostapenko, right in Kyiv, thereby expressing respect and solidarity with those who today protect cultural values that transcend the borders of a single country,” says Michal Lukeš, Director General of the National Museum of the Czech Republic.
“I consider the handover of ARK III in Kyiv to be a major milestone in the support that the KKFF Foundation began providing to the Ukrainian side immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All of our efforts, from supporting Ukrainian mothers and children fleeing the war to adaptation camps for their children, have pursued a single goal: to help protect the Ukrainian nation and its identity. I hope that ARK III will fulfill its enormous potential precisely in the interest of this goal,” said KKFF Foundation Director Luboš Veselý, who believes the project is also a result of the foundation’s ability to connect key institutions and create innovative projects of international significance in collaboration with them.
"I would like to say that the key story behind this project is that it will serve not only the Lavra. This is a very important step of support and genuine solidarity with those museums that need it most today — museums located near the frontline or those that have been evacuated. The project will enter its next phase today with a training program for thirty colleagues from other museums, so that it is clear to everyone: this equipment will serve all of Ukraine. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of the entire professional museum community of Ukraine," said Maksym Ostapenko, Director General of the National Reserve Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, one of the most important museum complexes in Ukraine and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, administers more than 70,000 collection items — ranging from icons and manuscripts to archaeological finds and sacred objects. The mobile station will begin operating there in the first phase of the project.
The collected data will be stored in a secure digital environment and used for professional research, documentation, and future conservation work. The project also includes training for Ukrainian specialists who will use the technology in practice in other parts of Ukraine affected by the war.
