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In a daring chain of events reminiscent of a scene from Oceans Eleven, a Caravaggio painting stolen two years ago from the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art has been recovered in Berlin by German and Ukrainian police. The painting, called “The taking of Christ” or “The kiss of Judas” by scholars, is considered the most valuable painting in the Ukraine. Originally belonging to a Russian Ambassador to France, then the Russian prince and finally the museum in Odessa, it was stolen in 2008 by thieves who broke into the museum over night and cut the painting from its frame.
“On Friday, German police arrested four men — three Ukrainians and one Russian — who were attempting to sell the canvas to a buyer in Berlin. They are believed to be members of an international gang of art thieves, and 20 other suspected members of it were arrested in Ukraine, the police said.”
Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art
9, Pushkinskaya str., Odessa, Ukraine, 65026
