November 10, 2025

Tolstoy Discovered in an Unlikely Place


Tolstoy Discovered in an Unlikely Place
Easier reading than "War and Peace": "Moscow Kremlin" by Oleg Tolstoy. Russian Federal Customs Service, Telegram.

On November 6, customs officials in the Far Eastern port of Vladivostok confiscated an unusually high-culture piece of contraband: A painting by a descendant of famed Russian author Lev Tolstoy.

Authorities found the painting while searching a ship inbound to Russia from Toyama, Japan. According to an official statement, the painting was found in a crew cabin. The crew member said he'd been given it by a stranger, with instructions to pass it along to another person the crew member didn't know upon his arrival in Vladivostok.

Following confiscation, customs agents sent the painting for analysis by experts. They determined that the work was a lithograph of "Moscow Kremlin," painted in 1960 by Oleg Tolstoy, great-grandson of the famous author.

The painting is now in the possession of the state, which views it as an object of high cultural value. Whether it will be displayed for public viewing has not been announced.

 

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