[CPProt.net] Hunt for missing Russian treasures

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Hunt for missing Russian treasures
Mark Franchetti, Moscow
31 Oct 05

RUSSIAN police are looking for 55,000 stolen works of art worth more than
$1.2 billion that have been smuggled abroad and sold on the black market
during the 15 years since the collapse of communism.

In what has been described as the country's largest treasure hunt, the
authorities are trying to retrieve 3400 paintings, 37,000 icons and 1500
rare books, as well as gems, coins and musical instruments. They were taken
from museums, churches and private collections. 
Investigators from the Russian Interior Ministry have compiled the first
comprehensive database of the lost art. 

They have also given Interpol descriptions of the 700 most valuable items in
the hope that some will be tracked down as they are traded on the
international art market. 

"A lot of art was stolen in the chaotic years after the collapse of
communism," said an official who helped to set up the database. "In those
days we barely had computers. Now we are much more organised and every item
which is stolen is properly registered." 

Among the missing works is Pool in a Harem, a painting by Jean-Leon Gerome,
the 19th-century French artist. It is worth more than $1.2 million and was
stolen from the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg in 2001. 

Also on the list is a $1.24million canvas by Kazmir Malevich, a Russian
abstract artist, which vanished from a private collection more than a decade
ago. 

A painting by Ivan Aivazovsky, estimated to be worth more than $1.2 million,
was stolen in 1998 from a museum in Astrakhan. Weeks passed before a
custodian noticed that the original canvas had been replaced with a copy. 

"There are more than 2000 museums in Russia and the majority lack funds to
install proper security systems," said one investigator. 

The main smuggling route used by art thieves crossed Poland into Germany,
said investigators. But many works had also turned up in Britain. 

Two months ago, Richard Temple, a British art collector, returned an icon
dating from 1550 after discovering it had been stolen from a church north of
Moscow 11 years ago. 

It had vanished after thieves drugged two church workers. 

The Sunday Times
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/