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Tretyakov Gallery to equip all exhibitions with special sensors

Police have not ruled out that the perpetrator had accomplices

© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. The State Tretyakov Gallery will equip all its exhibitions with special sensors in the wake of the theft of a painting by Arkhip Kuindzhi, head of the gallery Zelfira Tregulova told reporters on Monday.

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"I can say with full responsibility that all subsequent exhibitions at the Tretyakov Gallery will be equipped with such sensors, despite their budgets having been prepared already and the funds from sponsors having been received," she said.

The painting titled "Ai-Petri. Crimea" by Arkhip Kuindzhi was stolen from the gallery on January 27. On Monday morning, news came that it had been recovered. The painting comes from the collection of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and was brought to Moscow for an exhibition of Kuindzhi’s masterpieces. The 39 by 53 cm painting in oil on canvas and paper dates back to the 1890s.

Security measures at the State Tretyakov Gallery were stepped up following the incident. Head of the Russian Culture Ministry’s Museum Department Vladislav Kononov said there were plans to install digital sensors on all paintings in the gallery.

Earlier, Russia’s Interior Ministry jointly with the Federal Security Service have detained a suspect in the theft of the painting - a 31-year-old male, who hid the artwork at the construction site in Odintsovo (Moscow Region), where the police discovered and seized it.

The suspect was detained in December 2018 for drug possession. Police have not ruled out that the perpetrator had accomplices. Earlier, a law enforcement source stated that the painting had most likely been stolen on someone's order.

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