NEW INSIGHTS IN CASE OF HERMITAGE THEFTS

The Guardian‘s Luke Harding reports on new insights into the case of recent thefts at Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, including how Larisa Zavadskaya and her husband, Nikolai, pulled off the ultimate inside job, stealing seventy-seven items from the museum’s collection of Russian treasures. According to prosecutors, the couple made off with icons, a Swiss pocket watch, and a gold-encrusted saltcellar. Mrs. Zavadskaya, who died in 2005, simply walked out of the staff exit, apparently unchallenged by security guards, and the couple subsequently sold the pieces to antique dealers and pawnshops. Mr. Zavadsky disputed claims that the objects were worth 7.5 million rubles ($283,200). “I don’t dissent from the valuation as such,” he told the court. “But it’s made using estimates from foreign catalogues. It isn’t possible to sell these things in our country at these prices.”