Recovered Kuindzhi Artwork Moved to St. Petersburg's Museum - Official

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The ceremony to hand over an early 20th century painting by Russian landscape artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, which has been stolen from the Tretyakov Gallery and recovered the day after, to the State Russian Museum took place on 30 January, head of the Russian Culture Ministry's museum department, Vladislav Kononov, told Sputnik.

"The transfer ceremony took place at the History Museum of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department. [The painting] was transferred by the department's head, Sergey Kuzmin. I was present [at the ceremony], as well as director of the Tretyakov Gallery [Zelfira Tregulova] and director of the State Russian Museum Vladimir Gusev. The painting leaves for restoration in St. Petersburg", Kononov said.

The painting will be moved to St. Petersburg in a few days but for the time being would be held in storage at the Tretyakov Gallery, Kononov added.

According to Kononov, the experts at the Russian Museum will decide on its restoration after they receive the painting, which has minor scuffs on it.

He stressed that the experts had no doubt about the authenticity of the artwork. This fact was confirmed by seven experts of the Tretyakov Gallery on Tuesday.

Earlier, Tregulova said that the painting would no longer return to the temporary exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery, but would become part of the State Russian Museum's permanent exhibition.

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On 27 January, the painting, which depicts the Ai-Petri peak in the Crimean mountains, was taken off the gallery wall on Sunday in plain sight of numerous visitors. None of them raised the alarm because they thought that the thief was a gallery employee.

Early on Tuesday, the police found the artwork, titled "Ai-Petri. Crimea," in the Odintsovsky District, southwest of Moscow, after they detained the suspected thief. Moscow's Tagansky Court ruled to arrest the suspect later the same day.