MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. The alarm sensors for the paintings at the Arkhip Kuindzhi exhibition at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow will cost about 2 million rubles ($30,286), Vladislav Kononov, head of the museums department at the Culture Ministry, told reporters on Monday.

"Two million rubles for 180 Kuindzhi's paintings are not very large funds. Moreover, these sensors can be used at other expositions," he said.

Earlier on Monday, head of the gallery Zelfira Tregulova told reporters that the gallery will equip all its exhibitions with special sensors in the wake of the theft of a painting by Arkhip Kuindzhi.

On Monday, a source in the law enforcement agencies told TASS that the "Ai Petri. Crimea" painting by Kuindzhi, had been found near Moscow after being stolen from the Tretyakov Gallery.

The source said that after scanning it briefly, “its condition is normal," noting that the painting would serve as evidence in a criminal case.

The artwork was stolen from Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery on Sunday evening in front of everyone. The masterpiece had been brought from St. Petersburg’s Russian Museum to be displayed at the exhibition of Kuindzhi’s works.

Russia’s Interior Ministry jointly with the Federal Security Service (FSB) on Monday detained the suspected thief in the Zarechye village in the Moscow Region. The 31-year-old man told police that he had hidden the painting on the grounds of a construction site in the Odintsovsky Region. Following up on the information from the suspect, police later found the painting there.

The suspect has a criminal record. Back in December 2018, he was taken into custody on drug possession charges. He was later released on his own recognizance under a pledge not to leave the country. Police are not ruling out that he could have accomplices. That being said, a criminal investigation is underway.