Ukrainian Photographer Boris Mikhailov’s Work Stolen in Museum Theft

{A photograph} by acclaimed Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov has been stolen from the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in what officers imagine was a focused theft.

The work, a part of Mikhailov’s 1993 collection At Dusk, disappeared from the Radvila Palace Museum of Art in Vilnius on June 28 whereas on view within the exhibition Ukrainian Dreamers: Kharkiv School of Photography, in keeping with museum officers. Police are investigating after the incident was captured on safety cameras. 

According to reporting in Ocula, museum employees found the {photograph} lacking from a second-floor gallery shortly after 1:30 p.m., however the suspected thief had already left the constructing.

“We believe the perpetrator likely knew in advance that Boris Mikhailov is the most prominent artist featured in the exhibition and that his works are among its most valuable,” museum director basic Arūnas Gelūnas advised Ocula. He mentioned officers suspect the work could have been stolen both for a non-public assortment or on the market on the black market. 

Lithuanian police have valued the {photograph} at about €7,000 (roughly $8,200). Under Lithuanian regulation, the theft carries a most sentence of three years in jail. 

The theft comes after a string of high-profile museum robberies throughout Europe over the previous yr, prompting renewed scrutiny of museum safety. In October, thieves used a cherry picker and an angle grinder to steal 9 items of knickknack value an estimated $102 million from the Louver’s Apollo Gallery in a raid that lasted lower than eight minutes. Other current thefts have focused the Natural History Museum in Paris, the Drents Museum within the Netherlands and the House of Enlightenment, Denis Diderot, in Langres, France. 

The stolen {photograph} is one among 111 hand-tinted panoramic pictures Mikhailov made in his hometown of Kharkiv following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The collection paperwork a metropolis grappling with financial hardship by scenes of meals traces, deserted buildings, and crumbling infrastructure. 

Gelūnas mentioned it was the primary theft reported on the museum in additional than twenty years. The final occurred greater than 20 years in the past, when one other small-scale art work disappeared and was by no means recovered.

The incident has prompted the museum to assessment the way it protects smaller works on show.

“While it is not feasible to install individual alarm systems for every object, it is clear that reinforcing the physical security of vulnerable works is an important step,” Gelūnas mentioned. 

Represented by Marian Goodman Gallery, Mikhailov is extensively thought to be one among Eastern Europe’s most influential photographers. His work, which blends documentary images with conceptual observe, has earned honors together with the Hasselblad Award and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize.