News

Saint-Petersburg Main Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee has finished investigating a criminal case against Yelena Basner charged with a crime under part 4 of article 159 of the RF Penal Code (fraud).

According to investigators, in summer 2009, Basner, a specialist in art history and painting well-known in the city, conspired with a wanted person to commit a grand fraud by giving knowingly false estimate of the authenticity of a painting by Boris Grigoryev “In a restaurant”. Basner received the said forged painting from her accomplice and knowing for sure that the real picture is kept in the State Russian Museum deceived a buyer about its authenticity and took from him 250 thousand US dollars. The accomplices spent the money on their own needs.

The investigators have gathered enough evidence so the criminal case with the approved indictment will soon be sent to court to be tried on the merits.