By Country / Russia
Russian Court Sentences History Teacher For Hermitage Thefts
March 15, 2007
Nikolai Zavadsky in court on March 13 (ITAR-TASS)
Nikolai Zavadsky pleaded guilty to
stealing more than 200 silver and enamel artifacts worth an estimated $5 million.
Zavadsky said he sold the items to pawnshops and used the money to buy insulin for his diabetic wife, Larisa, who was a curator at the museum.
The Hermitage discovered the thefts when Zavadsky's wife died of a heart attack during an audit of the collection the couple was plundering.
"The fact that the valuables were stolen from the Hermitage by an organized group is proven beyond doubt by the consistency of the forms and methods used by the accomplices to carry out their criminal intentions: the identical nature of the objects of theft -- valuables in the custody of Zavadskaya -- and the method of selling them," Judge Anzhelika Morozova said in delivering the verdict today.
The court also ordered Zavadsky to pay the Hermitage 7.3 million rubles ($283,000) in damages.
(Reuters, AP, ITAR-TASS)