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Thief who pulled off painting heist in broad daylight apologizes to Tretyakov Gallery

Back in January, Chuprikov offered his apology to the Russian public for what he had done

Denis Chuprikov Mikhail Pochuev/TASS

Denis Chuprikov

© Mikhail Pochuev/TASS

MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. Denis Chuprikov, accused of stealing Arkhip Kuindzhi’s painting "Ai-Petri. Crimea" from the State Tretyakov Gallery, has apologized to the gallery and to the Ministry of Culture, TASS reported from the courtroom on Tuesday.

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Stolen painting returns to exhibition at Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery

"I want to apologize to the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Ministry of Culture for what I did," he said prior to a court session at Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky district court.

On January 27, the painting was lifted right off a wall in the Tretyakov Gallery, featuring artworks by landscape artist Arkhip Kuindzhi. Chuprikov was arrested the following day and the painting, worth approximately $200,000, was discovered and returned back to the museum.

Detectives determined that he had acted alone, stealing the artwork for financial gain. A criminal case was opened under Article 164 of the Russian Criminal Code (theft of highly-prized objects).

The 39x53 cm oil painting "Ai-Petri. Crimea" from the collection of St. Petersburg’s State Russian Museum dates back to the 1890s.

Back in January, Chuprikov offered his apology to the Russian public for what he had done. Ivan Melnikov, the executive secretary of the Public Monitoring Commission, visited him in the pre-trial detention center then, citing the defendant as saying that his decision to steal the painting had been spontaneous. Chuprikov has already paid off the cost of the restoration work.

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