Watch: Man casually strolls out of museum with a painting in brazen robbery
The suspect was nabbed after he walked out of the crowded museum with the $182,000 painting in broad daylight.
In a stunning museum heist, a thief casually walked out of a Russian art gallery with a valuable painting.
In footage released by the Russian interior ministry, the man was seen walking up to a 19th-century painting titled “Ai Petri, Crimea” by Russian artist Arkhip Kuindzhi and taking it off the wall at the Tretyakov Museum. Other visitors turned to around to watch, but no one said anything.
The paining was insured for $182,000, according to a spokeswoman for the museum.
The Russian news agency TASS reported that police recovered the painting, undamaged, from a construction site outside Moscow on Monday, a day after it was stolen. The authorities also arrested a 31-year-old suspect.
Zelfira Tregulova, director general of the Tretyakov said the museum will install motion detectors and might consider inspecting departing visitors, according to the New York Times.