Court ordered to return to the Russian Federation withdrawn from the auction painting "Workshop" XVI century

A court on Thursday, December 26, ordered the return to Russia of the painting "Workshop", painted by the artist Herry meth de Blais, after it was withdrawn from the auction at Sotheby's.

In 2020, the owner of the painting entered into an agreement with Alexis Ashot Ltd. to sell it at auction. If the de Blais piece had not been sold by October 21, 2021, it should have been returned to Russia. However, the work of art was soon removed from the auction. It is specified that the auction house received an appeal from the citizens of Switzerland, claiming that this is their canvas and it was stolen, which served as the basis for a criminal case, and the work remained in storage in the auction house. Now Sotheby's has been obliged to return the painting back to the Russian Federation.

The painting was repeatedly checked for theft: in 2010 during the purchase through the Interpol database, in 2012 in cooperation with Christie's, and twice, in 2017 and 2018, through Art Lost Register and Scotland Yard. All checks showed that the painting is not listed as stolen, and there were no claims from third parties, notes "RIA Novosti".

The horse went: Van Dyck's equestrian depiction and the dinosaur family

Auction lots of December

Earlier, December 16, it was reported that the painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" by Ilya Repin, which was damaged in 2018 by vandals, after restoration returned to the permanent exhibition of the Tretyakov Gallery. The canvas was under restoration for several years from 2019 in a special workshop of the museum.