Press releases

MINSK, 30 January (BelTA) – Belarus is planning to return Ivan Shishkin’s painting Forest to Russia, the ONT TV channel reported.

BelTA reported earlier that the painting was seized during the arrest of members of a drug ring by officers of the department for drug control and combating human trafficking at the Interior Ministry of Belarus. The artwork is currently undergoing art examination in the National Art Museum of Belarus.

Ivan Shishkin’s artwork Forest painted in 1897 and measuring 60 x 82 cm was stolen from the Vyazniki History and Art Museum in Vladimir Oblast, the Russian Federation in 2013. Back then the robbers stole several paintings by renowned 19th and 20th century Russian artists: Forest by Ivan Shishkin, Fisherman by Konstantin Korovin and First Snow by Stanislav Zhukovsky.