Hermitage theft update

Russia's prosecutor general's office announced Thursday that charges of theft have been levelled against the husband and son of the late curator who had been in charge of the collection, as well as another man known to the family.

Charged are Nikolai Zavadsky, his son Nikolai Zavadsky Jr. and Ivan Sobolev, a university professor.

Authorities believe the thefts from the museum's precious metals and stones collection had been going on for a long time with the help of the late Larissa Zavadsky, who died in 2005.

Full article here. Meanwhile, this just in:

Another item stolen from the Hermitage Museum has been found in St. Petersburg, the local police said.

"A silver-framed icon was found at 14.00 Moscow time [10.00 GMT] in a luggage locker at the Finlyandsky railway station," a police source said, adding that the location had been revealed in an anonymous phone call.

The icon is the 25th recovered item on a list of 221 works of art reported stolen from one of the world's richest art collections in the world. The theft had been uncovered during a routine check at the end of July.

Looks like the Russian police are playing rough, if this story is any indication:

Russian prosecutors have released Maxim Shepel, detained on suspicion of the Hermitage museum theft in St. Petersburg. The antiquarian’s lawyer, Andrey Pavlov said Shepel had become a witness. The new status in the trial cost him dear. Maxim Shepel suffered an eye injury and was admitted to a psychiatric ward of the jail hospital.

Posted by David on August 19, 2006 10:45 PM