The State Tretyakov Gallery will equip all its exhibitions with special sensors in the wake of the theft of a painting by Arkhip Kuindzhi, head of the gallery Zelfira Tregulova said.
"I can say with full responsibility that all subsequent exhibitions at the Tretyakov Gallery will be equipped with such sensors, despite their budgets having been prepared already and the funds from sponsors having been received," TASS cited Tregulova as saying.
The painting titled 'Ai-Petri. Crimea' by Arkhip Kuindzhi was stolen from the gallery on January 27. On Monday morning, news came that it had been recovered.
Security measures at the State Tretyakov Gallery were stepped up following the incident. Head of the Russian Culture Ministry’s Museum Department Vladislav Kononov said there were plans to install digital sensors on all paintings in the gallery.
Earlier, Russia’s Interior Ministry jointly with the Federal Security Service have detained a suspect in the theft of the painting - a 31-year-old male, who hid the artwork at the construction site in Odintsovo, where the police discovered and seized it.
The suspect was detained in December 2018 for drug possession. The police does not rule out that he had accomplices. Earlier, a source in the law enforcement agencies informed that the painting had most likely been stolen to order.
