Painting is destroyed
MOSCOW (AP) -- A painting turned over to Communist Party officials Wednesday is believed to be a 19th-century French work stolen from Russia's famed State Hermitage Museum five years ago, officials said.
A man brought a nondescript package into the party's parliamentary offices. Inside, party officials found a painting that had been cut into four pieces.
Officials later realized it was the painting "Piscine du Harem" by French artist Jean Leon Gerome, which was stolen in March 2001. It is valued at some 1 million.
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