Stolen icon returned to native land after 32 years
>From The Times February 27, 2009 Stolen icon returned to native land after 32 years An 18th-century painting titled The Christening of Jesus' Rome An 18th-century icon that was stolen from a Serbian Orthodox monastery 32 years ago has been returned to Belgrade by the Italian authorities. “We had already lost all hope but thanks to international cooperation to return stolen art objects we have been able to recover this treasure, which will return to its native country,” the Serbian Ambassador Sanda Raskovic-Ivic said during a ceremony in Rome where the statue was handed over. The Baptism of Jesus icon, above, went missing from a monastery in the northwestern town of Neredin in 1977. It was discovered in the home of an art thief in the Adriatic city of Ancona in a joint action by Italian and Serbian police. The statue will be returned to the monastery from where it was stolen, the ambassador said. (AFP)
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