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French painting stolen from Russia's Hermitage turned over to officials at 15:10 on December 20, 2006, EST.
MOSCOW (AP) - A painting turned over to Communist party officials Wednesday is believed to be a 19th-century French work stolen from Russia's famed State Hermitage Museum five years ago, officials said. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said a man whom he did not identify brought a nondescript package into the party's parliamentary offices. Inside, party officials found a painting that had been cut into four pieces. Officials later realized it was the painting "Piscine du Harem" by French artist Jean Leon Gerome, which was stolen from the Hermitage in March 2001. The painting was valued at some US$1 million. Viktor Petrakov, an official with Russia's federal culture agency, said in televised comments that an art expert had confirmed that the painting was genuine. The renowned St. Petersburg museum - housed in what was once the Winter Palace for the Russian imperial family - has been hit by a series of embarrassing art thefts. This summer, museum officials discovered that 221 items valued at more than $5 million had been stolen in the past six years, prompting wide criticism and exposing the lack of security at Russian cultural institutions, plagued by chronic money woes since state funding dried up after the 1991 Soviet collapse. An unknown number of the items have since been recovered by authorities. The Hermitage, which was started by Catherine the Great in 1764, holds vast holdings of antiquities, decorative art and western art include world-renowned collections of Italian Renaissance, 17th-and 18th-century Dutch and Flemish, and impressionist paintings. ©The Canadian Press, 2006 
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moderatorluv4u said: at 15:10 on December 20, 2006, EST.
MOSCOW (AP) - A painting turned over to Communist party officials Wednesday is believed to be a 19th-century French work stolen from Russia's famed State Hermitage Museum five years ago, officials said. Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said a man whom he did not identify brought a nondescript package into the party's parliamentary offices. Inside, party officials found a painting that had been cut into four pieces. Officials later realized it was the painting "Piscine du Harem" by French artist Jean Leon Gerome, which was stolen from the Hermitage in March 2001. The painting was valued at some US$1 million. Viktor Petrakov, an official with Russia's federal culture agency, said in televised comments that an art expert had confirmed that the painting was genuine. The renowned St. Petersburg museum - housed in what was once the Winter Palace for the Russian imperial family - has been hit by a series of embarrassing art thefts. This summer, museum officials discovered that 221 items valued at more than $5 million had been stolen in the past six years, prompting wide criticism and exposing the lack of security at Russian cultural institutions, plagued by chronic money woes since state funding dried up after the 1991 Soviet collapse. An unknown number of the items have since been recovered by authorities. The Hermitage, which was started by Catherine the Great in 1764, holds vast holdings of antiquities, decorative art and western art include world-renowned collections of Italian Renaissance, 17th-and 18th-century Dutch and Flemish, and impressionist paintings. ©The Canadian Press, 2006 Nonsense! 
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