The battle over the estate of legendary artist Marchuk. The court rejected the appeal filed by one of the parties to the dispute
27 March 13:40
The court rejected the appeal filed by Igor Apostol—the son of former People’s Deputy Mykhailo Apostol—regarding the failure to conduct a handwriting analysis in the case concerning Ivan Marchuk’s copyright. The artist continues to fight for recognition of his rights to the paintings. Ivan Marchuk reported this on his Facebook page, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
“The court rejected the appeal filed by the son of former MP Apostol—Igor (whom, by the way, I have never met in person, yet he is claiming my copyright)—regarding the failure to conduct a handwriting analysis. The analysis will take place! I sincerely hope that the court’s decision regarding the copyright that rightfully belongs to me will be fair. Is it normal that, at nearly 90 years old, I have been fighting in court for almost a year for what I created during my lifetime—so that it might serve Ukraine, not a bunch of swindlers? Is there any way to deal with these monsters, and who is behind their arrogance and audacity?” the artist wrote.
The essence of the conflict
Ukrainian artist Ivan Marchuk accused former MP Mykhailo Apostol of appropriating the copyright to his paintings. According to the artist, in 2020 he was pressured into signing a contract he did not want to sign, and subsequently Apostol stopped responding to his communications. Therefore, Marchuk went to court to protect his rights.
Marchuk named Tamara Strypko —the organizer of his exhibitions and creative projects, with whom he has been collaborating for twenty years—as a witness to the signing of the contract. According to the artist, they tried together to resolve the situation privately, which they initially perceived as a “misunderstanding.”
Strypko notes: at the time of signing, the 84-year-old master had serious vision problems (surgery on both eyes due to cataracts) and trusted a “high-profile friend.” However, the content of the document turned out to be shocking.
“On the second page, it was clearly stated: the transfer of exclusive copyright for one hundred years for ten thousand hryvnias. We’re not talking about a thousand works, but all the works created by the maestro over the course of eighty years—and that’s about five thousand paintings,” Tamara Strypko explained
According to her, the document does not mention the former MP himself, but his son, Igor Apostol, whom the artist had never met. Attempts to resolve the issue privately failed because Apostol’s side stopped responding.
Mykhailo Apostol rejects all accusations. He claims that the agreement does not concern the original paintings, but only the right to create reproductions from photographs. The former MP accuses the artist’s entourage, particularly Tamara Strypko, of manipulation and attempts to isolate Marchuk from reality.
“Only a complete idiot or a mentally unstable person could make such accusations and keep spreading them. The contract has absolutely nothing to do with the originals of Marchuk’s paintings, but only with photos of his paintings… Neither the paintings, nor the reproductions, nor the artist himself and his entourage are of any interest to me. I want to forget this name and everything associated with it,” Mykhailo Apostol wrote on March 26 on his Facebook page.
What’s next
The case is now entering the phase of forensic examination. If experts prove that the signatures were tampered with or that the terms of the contract do not reflect the author’s actual intentions, the transaction may be declared invalid. The artist’s side insists: the main goal is to preserve Marchuk’s legacy for the state, not for the private enrichment of individuals.
The artist himself notes that this battle is not about money, but about ensuring that his art belongs to Ukraine, not to private individuals who “gained his trust” during a difficult time for him.
As a reminder, on December 18, 2025, law enforcement authorities opened a criminal case based on a statement by People’s Artist of Ukraine Ivan Marchuk. He complained of the misappropriation of his property copyrights to works of fine art through abuse of trust. The artist noted that he had been misled “regarding the legal consequences of entering into License (Copyright) Agreement No. 1 dated May 21, 2020, on the basis of which the rights to the paintings belonging to him were effectively transferred without his understanding of the actual scope and content of the transferred rights.”
What did this agreement entail?
The artist granted the aforementioned four individuals an exclusive license to use the copyrights to the images of all his paintings for a term of… 100 years! For this, the artist allegedly received… 10,000 UAH (or $360 at the 2020 exchange rate) in compensation. For the artist, the agreement stipulated a 5% royalty on revenue from licensing rights. The artist claims he never received any 10,000 hryvnias in compensation and considered the agreement invalid, and is now forced to challenge it in court.
Almost ten years ago, in February 2017, the renowned painter Ivan Marchuk had already found himself in a bind. His 101st painting, with an estimated value of $10 million, ended up in the hands of a swindler. Marchuk had handed over his canvases to an agent for an exhibition at the Prado National Art Gallery (Spain). However, no public event ever took place. And the agent himself stopped answering the artist’s calls. Marchuk then turned to the police, who quickly tracked down the agent.
Ivan Marchuk is a laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine and a member of the Scientific Council of the International Academy of Contemporary Art in Rome. During the Soviet era, he was long unable to officially exhibit his works and suffered oppression and persecution by the KGB. From 1989 to 2001, he lived in Australia, Canada, and the United States. In 2007, he was included in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph’s list of “100 Geniuses of the Modern Age.”
In 2021, Ivan Marchuk was awarded the Presidential Distinction “National Legend of Ukraine.” The award was presented for “outstanding personal contributions to the establishment of Independent Ukraine and the strengthening of its statehood, as well as a significant contribution to the development of national art.”
The artist’s body of work includes over 5,000 pieces; he has held more than 150 solo and about 50 group exhibitions. The average price of a painting is $5,000–$10,000. In the summer of 2024, Ivan Marchuk’s painting “The Moon Rises Over the Dnipro” was sold for a record $300,000 for works by this artist at the Goldens auction in Kyiv. In 2022, another painting by Marchuk, “The Garden of Temptation,” sold for $120,000 at a charity auction.
Ivan Marchuk, one of Ukraine’s most famous artists, will turn 90 in May 2026. He is the creator of the “plontanism” technique—the layering of fine lines that form a unique composition of color and light. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, he has been living and working in Vienna, where he has already created about 200 new works.
