Chechnya art treasures ready to return home

More than 100 paintings, which had been kept in the Moscow restoration center for 15 years, are being prepared for the return to the National museum of the Chechen republic. According to Vakha Astalov, head of the museum, the paintings were brought from Chechnya to Russia during the Chechen war in 1990-s. Rescued from a gallery gutted by battles for Chechnya's capital Grozny they were in a poor condition. The experts of the Moscow restoration center have already restored 45 of 112 paintings, in particular "The Capture of Shamil" a work by Franz Rubo, a French-born Russian artist. This paining was stolen in 1998 from the museum in Grozny and latere confiscated by police from the thieves who planned to sell it abroad.