Moscow, Dec 29 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russia has added 900 works of art, including paintings, to Interpol’s database of stolen cultural property items, a minister said Thursday.
Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Bulavin said 250 works of art, among them paintings by Isaak Levitan and 23 ancient icons, have come back to Russia via the international policing body since 1990.
Many historical documents signed by Elizabeth of Russia, Catherine the Great, Nicholas I and other emperors returned home in 2010, he said.
In 2009, Interpol unveiled an online database of 34,000 items known to have gone missing.
Open to governments, museums, galleries and auction houses, the database features masterpieces by artists such as Caravaggio, Titian and Degas and a host of other lesser known paintings, sculptures, furniture and jewellery.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
pm/vt
