FBI Returns Ukrainian Painting Stolen By Nazis During World War II

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2019) The Unite States returned a painting to the Ukraine Embassy in Washington nearly eight decades after the piece of art was stolen by the Nazis, the FBI's Washington Field Office announced on Monday.

"The painting, titled 'Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible Before the Oprichina,' by Mikhail N.

Panin, was stolen from the Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum in Nazi-occupied Ukraine in 1941," the FBI said in a release.

For years, the painting was part of a private collection belonging to collectors identified only as the Tracy family.

"The Tracy family, unaware the painting was stolen, took care to preserve the painting, which they admired for decades in their as stolen home," the release added.

In 2017, the painting was identified as stolen when the family commissioned the Potomack Auction Company to sell it, according to the release.