Caravaggio's "The Betrayal of Christ" which was stolen from a Ukrainian museum, has been returned to Ukraine by the presidential aircraft, the president’s press service has told Interfax-Ukraine.
The restoration of the painting will be carried out in Kyiv. Then the painting will be sent to an Odesa museum after the museum is equipped with the required security systems.
As reported, the painting, by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Caravaggio, which was stolen from Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, was returned to a Ukrainian delegation headed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych during their visit to Germany on Monday.
Caravaggio’s "The Betrayal of Christ," one of the gems of the collection of Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art was stolen from the museum on July 31, 2008. A number of experts estimate the work to be worth $100 million. However, some experts believe that the stolen painting is an author’s copy at best, and the original is in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.
On June 25, in Berlin a group of three residents of Ukraine and one resident of Germany, who were trying to sell the painting, were detained in Germany.
The drama surrounding the long-last masterpiece has been extensively chronicled.
Read more about the history of the painting here in a recent article published by the Irish Examiner.
