Five paintings by the 19th century Russian artist Isaac Levitan worth an estimated $2.1 million have been stolen from a museum in the Russian resort town of Plyos, according to The Art Newspaper.
The artworks were taken in the early hours of August 5 from a museum in the house where the artist once lived. The idyllic scenery in the region surrounding the town of Plyos by the Volga River served as an inspiration for many of the artists’ works.
Russian media reported that at least two thieves spray-painted the lens of security cameras and escaped with the paintings on motorcycles. Meanwhile the website of the local government of the Ivanovo region confirmed the theft and identified two of the missing works as ‘Roses’ and ‘Quiet Streams’ as missing.
The tranquil nature-scenes by Levitan are popular with Russian collectors, as well as art lovers who stood in line in the cold to see a Levitan retrospective at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 2011. Levitan’s The Illumination of the Kremlin sold at Christie’s London in 2007 for £1.6 million ($3.3 million).
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