The United States returned to Ukraine the picture stolen during the Second World War. A PHOTO

Happy End International Cultural Detective: For the first time in history, the United States has returned a disappeared picture to Ukraine. It became known where she was for 70 years, how she was found and why it was worth returning a work of art to her homeland.

Photo: video frame YouTube / TSN

The painting “The Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible Before the Oprichnina” disappeared from the Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum during World War II, and for the past two years the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States has been working with the FBI to bring the painting found in America home to Ukraine, he says. TSN.

This return was preceded by a real detective story. The museum’s website still says: “The canvas was destroyed by the occupiers.” The American owners had no idea what exactly belonged to them.

“I bought a house in Richfield, Connecticut, in the 1980s along with several paintings that had been left there by the previous owners,” says David Tracy, the home's owner.

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The Tracy family are the owners of the house where the painting was discovered. Photo: video frame YouTube / TSN

How exactly the painting ended up in America is unknown. When the Tracys moved to a nursing home, they began to sell off their property. A favorite painting became too big for a new home, so it ended up in a gallery in a suburb of Washington. There, employees of the Dnieper Museum saw it in the list of works put up for auction. They sounded the alarm and began painstaking work to return the work home.

“This is the first time in the history of our bilateral relations that the United States has returned cultural property to Ukraine. And now I can say that it was a very long journey,” says Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly.

Photo: video frame YouTube / TSN

Having received confirmation of the origin of the painting from Dnieper (formerly Dnepropetrovsk - ForumDaily's note), the FBI, together with the embassy, ​​waited for a formal court decision. Everything was done secretly: Russia intended to interfere with the return process by demanding that the painting be returned to it, as the legal successor of the Soviet Union.

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Photo: video frame YouTube / TSN

Photo: video frame YouTube / TSN

Spouses Tracy, learning about the history of the canvas, did not interfere with the return of the picture to their homeland.

“I’m happy to return the painting to the Ukrainians,” says Gabriela Tracy, the owner of the house. “I hope one day we will go there and be able to see her in the museum.”

Photo: video frame YouTube / TSN

And a gift from Ukraine will go to the northern state of Maine, where the Tracy couple live - a plate with Petrykivka painting, which is much easier to find a place in a cozy home.

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