28/01/2002

A stolen painting, thought to be by Marc Chagall, has been found at a post office warehouse in Topeka, Kansas. Study for ‘Over Vitebsk’ valued at about $ 1 million (€ 1.1 million) was stolen from the Jewish Museum in New York City on the 8th of June 2001. The FBI are following up with investigations but the culprits, as yet, remain unknown. Meanwhile police in Uzbekistan have uncovered five paintings which were stolen on the 18th of January 2002 from a museum in the capital city, Tashkent. The paintings, believed to be worth a sum total of $ 1.96 million (€ 2.28 million) were stolen by thieves who hid in the museum during the day, waiting till nightfall to hatch their dastardly deeds. The paintings were Sunsets in the Steppe by Aivazovsky, Princess Obolenskaya by Tropinin, A Turkish Woman by Bryullov, A Girl with a Red Bow by Kramskoy, and a study by Surikov for his painting Morning of the Execution of the Streltsy. The works were part of the museum's permanent collection and once belonged to Grand Prince Constantine, the brother of the last Russian Tzar, Nicholas II. (Andrew Moore)