STOLEN HERMITAGE PAINTING RETURNED

A painting believed to have been stolen from Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum five years ago—French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Piscine du Harem, 1878—was presented to the leader of Russia’s Communist Party, reports RIA Novosti. A stranger called Gennady Zyuganov’s office in the headquarters of Parliament’s lower house Wednesday morning, saying he would like to give the one-million-dollar picture to the Communist leader. “Once the canvas was brought in, we began searching for information about the painting, and eventually came across an official statement by the Hermitage administration saying that an unidentified person had cut [the painting] out of its frame on March 22, 2001,” Zyuganov said. Zyuganov said he is now waiting for a group of experts from the Culture Ministry to come and test the picture for authenticity.