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New security system of Russian Museum to provide simultaneous control over all rooms

The theft of a painting by Arkhip Kuindzhi from an exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow became the reason for allocating additional funds to build up security in museums
Russian Museum Director Vladimir Gusev Alexander Demianchuk/TASS
Russian Museum Director Vladimir Gusev
© Alexander Demianchuk/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, October 16. /TAS/. The new security system that is being developed in the Russian Museum will provide simultaneous observation over all rooms, Russian Museum Director Vladimir Gusev said in an interview with TASS ahead of the St. Petersburg International Culture Forum.

"We are now receiving funds from the Ministry of Culture as well. A methodical center was created in the Ministry of Culture, and it should help the museums’ security services. We will purchase equipment for video monitoring - we lack cameras. That is, the security system should be multi-level, and there is work underway to create situation centers in order to monitor all rooms simultaneously," he said.

Gusev explained that work to increase security measures is regularly carried out in the museum, but it depends on financing. The theft of a painting by Arkhip Kuindzhi from an exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow became the reason for allocating additional funds to build up security in museums this year. "When such extraordinary situations happen - like the theft of Kuindzhi’s painting from an exhibition - attention is drawn to this problem, high-level discussions are held, and financial receipts grow," the museum’s director said.

He noted that over 30 years during which he headed the Russian Museum there were no significant thefts of exhibits. Gusev reiterated that the most vociferous case was an attempt to steal Vasily Perov’s painting "Solitary Guitarist" in April 1999, but it was successfully returned.

In January 2019, Kuindzhi’s painting "Ai-Petri. Crimea," that had been brought from the Russian Museum, was stolen from an exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery. Denis Chuprikov was found guilty. He took the painting from a wall in a Tretyakov Gallery hall, removed the frame behind the demonstration stand, left the building and disappeared. The next day Chuprikov was detained in the village of Zarechye, Moscow Region. Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky Court sentenced him to three years in a colony. Police officers found the painting on the site of a facility under construction in the Odintsovo district and gave it to the Ministry of Culture. The work was then returned to the Russian Museum.