MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. A painting by famous Russian landscape painter Arkhip Kuinzhi has been stolen from Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery. Russia’s ministry of culture has confirmed the loss of painting, the ministry’s press service told TASS on Sunday, citing director of the ministry’s museums department Vladislav Kononov.

"The fact of the absence of the Ai Petri painting and the presence of a big number of policemen is confirmed," he said.

"We are checking information about the loss of one of Kuindzhi’s paintings from the Russian Museum’s collection that was displayed at the State Tretyakov Gallery," he said.

"Official comments will be issued by the Tretyakov Gallery’s press service and the police," he adde.

Arkhip Kuindzhi (1842-1910), an outstanding landscape painter of the second half of the 19th century. He created a special type of romantic landscape based on a realistic perception of the world transformed by the artist’s personal touch.

The exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery offers more than 180 of his paintings from the collections of the Gallery, the Russian Museum, as well as from the collections of 19 regional museums and from museums of the former Soviet republics. The exhibition was opened on October 6, 2017 to be closed on February 17.