Latest Saint Petersburg Stories
By Christian Lowe MOSCOW (Reuters) - The husband of a curator at the center of a stolen art scandal in Russia said he and his wife were so poor that they stole artefacts from the Hermitage museum to buy insulin for her diabetes, his lawyer said on Friday. The theft of more than 200 silver and enamel pieces from the Hermitage exposed years of under-funding and neglect at Russia's museums, with staff paid paltry wages and no cash for adequate security. President Vladimir Putin has...
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Police have detained the husband and son of a museum curator on suspicion of stealing hundreds of artworks from Russia's world-famous Hermitage Museum, Interfax news agency said on Saturday. The suspects have confessed to stealing about $5 million worth of artifacts over a period of six years with the help of a member of the museum staff who is now dead, the agency quoted a source close to the investigation as saying. "Two people suspected of stealing...
By Dennis Pinchuk ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Historic Russian art worth nearly $5 million has vanished from the Hermitage, one of the world's greatest museums, its director said on Tuesday, with suspicion falling on members of staff. Auditors noticed the loss of pieces of silver and enamel, made by Russian craftsmen in the Middle Ages and 19th century, in stock-taking last month. News agencies said the lost artworks included icons, religious works and items with precious...
By Denis Pinchuk ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Vladimir Soloveichik had some unexpected visitors. It was a group of officials from the draft board telling him he had to report immediately for military duty. His friends have also had call-ups. They all have two things in common: they live in St. Petersburg, venue for this weekend's Group of Eight summit, and they are opposition activists, the sort of people the police do not want spoiling the talks. "Right now there are police and...
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A Senegalese student was shot dead by a gun decorated with a swastika as he was coming out of a night club with friends in Russia's second city St Petersburg early on Friday, police said. "They were coming out of a club when they heard a noise -- they thought it was a firecracker. Then they looked and one of them was lying on the ground," Dezire Defo, head of the African Unity group, told Reuters. Police have launched a criminal investigation....
By Mike Collett-White LONDON (Reuters) - Conductor Valery Gergiev is on a mission to make Russian classical music great again, and he is not afraid to ask friends in very high places to help. The famously fiery 52-year-old, considered one of the world's great conductors, has already done more than most to restore pride in his country's orchestras, ballets and operas, which suffered a talent drain when the Soviet Union collapsed. He has built the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, known also...
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police have foiled plans to smuggle a Marc Chagall painting worth an estimated $1 million abroad, local media reported on Tuesday, citing art police in St. Petersburg. The painting, known in Russian as "Khasid," was stolen in 2001 from a private collection in Russia along with six other paintings. St. Petersburg police raided an expensive restaurant in the city where the work by the Russian master was about to be handed to a smuggler who intended to take the...
