Stolen 'Ivan the Terrible' returns to Ukraine: FBI special operation

US authorities plan to return to Ukraine a picture of Ivan the Terrible. The work, written by 107 years ago by artist Mikhail Panin, disappeared from the Dnipropetrovsk Art Museum during the occupation of the city in 1941, and was recently discovered in a private home in Connecticut in the United States.

Photo: Facebook / Embassy of Ukraine in the USA / Embassy of Ukraine in the USA

Representatives of the US Attorney General's office said that until 1941, Mikhail Panin's painting "The Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible before the Oprichnina" was part of the permanent exhibition of the art museum in Dnepropetrovsk (now the city is called Dnepr). The statement, published on December 21, claims that the work, along with 63 other pieces of art, disappeared from the museum during the occupation of the city by German troops during World War II (at Online The Dnieper Museum of Ukrainian Painting indicates that Panin’s diploma work “Secret Departure...” was “destroyed by the occupiers”), writes “Radio Liberty«.

In 1962, the picture turned out to be from an American couple who bought a house in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The former owner of the house emigrated to the United States from Switzerland in 1946 year. New owners of the house found documents according to which the seller served in the Swiss army during the war. Neither the person’s name nor the names of the new homeowners are mentioned in the confiscation request filed with the District of Columbia Federal Court.

Representatives of the prosecutor's office claim that in 1986, an emigrant from Switzerland died, and a year later the house was sold again, the next owner (his name was also not revealed) put Panin's picture up for auction.

The Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum drew attention to the ad in the auction catalog and demanded the return of the work.” Attention! The painting "Ivan the Terrible" was in the collection of the Art Museum until 1941 and was stolen during World War II. This fact is confirmed by documents available in the museum. Please stop the sale of this painting at auction!!! According to international rules for the restitution of stolen art, the painting must be returned to Ukraine,” insists a museum employee in an email received at the auction house on November 17, 2017. Panin's work was seized by the FBI.

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