Ukraine-Russia: Ukrainian painting taken by Russia during Crimea annexation and wanted by Interpol turns up at Moscow auction

The Ukrainian painting was taken during the annexation of Crimea in 2014

A Ukrainian painting taken by Russia during the annexation of Crimea and which is on an Interpol wanted list has appeared at auction in Moscow.

Ukrainian law expert and former Crimean Prosecutor Gyunduz Mamedov said Moonlit Night, by Ivan Aivazovsky, is to be auctioned in the Russian capital on February 18 after being exhibited in the Simferopol Art Museum in Crimea, which is now under Russian control.

The painting, which was created in 1878, was reportedly being exhibited in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol at the time of Crimea's annexation in 2014, but was sent back to Crimea against the wishes of the Ukrainian authorities.

Two other paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky were offered as part of Sotheby’s Russian Pictures sale last year in London.

Mr Aivazovsky, who is considered one of the greatest ever masters of marine art, was born in 1817 in Crimea. The painting has been valued at around 100 million rubles (£870,000). Three other paintings by the artist were auctioned from a private collection in Sotheby’s in London last year.

“This canvas was among 52 paintings that were illegally transferred to the Simferopol Art Museum in Crimea,” Mr Mamedov said. "In 2017, Interpol, at the request of Crimea's Prosecutor's Office, put the paintings on the international wanted list.

"Russia openly disregards international law, as according to the 1970 UNESCO Convention, the export of cultural properties and transfer of ownership is prohibited.”

During the 41-day Russian occupation of Kherson in the early part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was claimed soldiers took paintings from the Kherson Art Museum, including three by Mr Aivazovsky. Kherson was liberated by Ukrainian troops in November 2022.

A statement issued by the Kherson Art Museum last year on Mr Aivazovsky’s birthday, said: “One of the world’s greatest masters of marine art became the Russians’ obsessive target. They measured the value of other artists’ works against Aivazovsky and stole his paintings from the museums of occupied cities.

"The same fate befell the Kherson Art Museum, from which the occupiers illegally took three works of the great master.”

The paintings taken from the Kherson Art Museum were Aivazovsky’s The Storm Subsides, View of Odesa on a Moonlit Night and The Sea. New murals by street artist Banksy were last year said to have been put under 24/7 security in Kyiv.