The Hermitage, a palace in St. Petersburg built by Catherine II and now used as an art museum, announced at the end of July that 221 items, including icons, medieval and 19th-century jewelry, and silverware and enamels, had been stolen from its Russian section. The $4.85 million theft was uncovered during a routine check.
University staff told RIA Novosti that lecturer Ivan Sobolev had been detained on suspicion of theft August 10 and remanded in custody until his trial. They said Sobolev, one of the four people arrested in connection with the theft, was a law abiding citizen and would not attempt to flee justice.
"There are no grounds for keeping Sobolev in custody," staff members said. "While working in the department, he has proven to be an excellent specialist, an industrious and upstanding teacher who is considerate of and attentive to his colleagues."
Staff members also said Sobolev's father was in poor health after the death of his wife earlier in the year. The professor also had to care for a daughter and was suffering from some stomach complaints himself, they said.
Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky said at a roundtable on security issues earlier in the day that internal security would be tightened at the Hermitage following the theft at Russia's largest art museum.
"Speaking of security, we often mean external security, which is all right. But we pay less attention to internal security, and now we must change the whole scheme, but do it carefully," Piotrovsky said. He said it was necessary to raise the museum staff's professional awareness and to improve the status of curators.
The Hermitage theft and news that a famous architect's drawings had disappeared prompted President Vladimir Putin to order inventories of museum collections nationwide.
