A man who stole a painting off the wall of Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery over the weekend has been arrested. The suspect took a Crimean landscape by Russian artist Arkhip Kuindzhi and carried it through a room filled with visitors on Sunday evening while posing as a gallery worker, the footage aired on Russian state television showed.
This is the second incident to hit the Russian capital’s gallery in less than a year. The first was vandalism against a painting of Ivan the Terrible, which was severely damaged when slashed by a visitor. Each year, art thefts account for around four to six billion dollars of losses worldwide. Due to the magnitude of the problem, the International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as Interpol, continually collects data about the many art thefts and recoveries. With 192 member countries, the international police organization catalogs around 50,000 stolen works of art.
While the Arkhip Kuindzhi artwork has been recovered, sadly many stolen pieces are not, and vandalized artwork often times is declared a total loss. This may be heartbreaking to the owner but the financial hit is also devastating. The good news is you can acquire the proper art coverage to recoup your investment in the eventArt of a loss. We at Bernard Fleischer & Sons Inc. / ArtInsuranceNow.com are true art lovers and we put the Artist, Collector, and/or Owner first when designing a custom policy.
Not every art owner is the same, there are different circumstances, building structures, security systems etc. We ask the right questions and evaluate them to get you the best policy at the best premium. Our online applications are tailored to your requirements and created for your convenience. For example, artists can apply for and bind a policy to cover their studio, art, art in transit, tools, and materials all while having their morning coffee at home.
Learn how you can protect your art while on public display, at home, in studio, or in transit. Visit ArtInsuranceNow.com to live chat with an agent or call us at 800.921.1008
