Fifteenth century transfiguration icon returned to Russia

A very valuable monument of the ancient Russian art, the icon of the fifteenth century - The Transfiguration of Our Lord - was returned to Russia on Monday.

As the press centre of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation reported, the icon of The Transfiguration of Our Lord was offered for sale by one of the New York galleries. However, as has been established by the Russian Ministry's department for the preservation of cultural values, in 1957 this icon was stolen from a church of the Moscow Old Believers' Metropolitanate and then was taken out of Russia by a Mexican diplomat as part of his collection. The department has succeeded in contacting the diplomat's widow who, having learned about the real origin of the icon, decided to return it to the old believers' community in Moscow.

The icon was created at the time of the rule of Moscow Grand Prince Ivan the Third. In his epoch the walls and the towers of the Moscow Kremlin and the Assumption and the Annunciation Cathedrals were built. It was at the time of Ivan the Third that the formation of the central territory of the single Russian state was completed, and the double-headed eagle became its symbol.