Suspect nabbed in brazen art theft from Moscow museum

MOSCOW: A man who snatched a 19’th-century painting off the wall in a busy Moscow museum and calmy walked out has been arrested, authorities said on Monday.

The suspect took a Crimean landscape by Russian artist Arkhip Kuindzhi and carried it through a room filled with visitors on Sunday evening, footage aired on state television showed. It is the second security incident to hit the capital’s Tretyakov gallery in a year, after a visitor in May seriously damaged a painting of Ivan the Terrible.

The Russian interior ministry said a 31-year-old man was detained on Monday in a village outside Moscow. He admitted hiding it on a construction site from where it was recovered, a ministry statement said.

The painting, depicting the Ai-Petri mountain in Crimea, was completed between 1898 and 1908. The ministry published a video of his arrest that showed armed police holding the man to the floor and recovering the painting, that appeared not to be damaged.

Authorities said the man had previously been charged with drug possession and was currently not allowed to leave Russia. Police are working to establish if he had accomplices. "At the time of the theft, the museum’s security -- carried out by forces of the National Guard and the museum’s security service -- was working normally," the gallery said.

"Security measures at the Arkhip Kuindzhi exhibition and all sites of the Tretyakov Gallery have been strengthened," it added. The Kremlin on Monday said the gallery is "protected at a proper level" but added that "conclusions must be drawn". It also praised authorities for recovering the painting.