Russian investigators to retrieve church relics smuggled to U.S.
Russia's Interior Ministry will send a team of investigators to the United States to retrieve a large number of Orthodox Church relics smuggled out of Russia, a senior investigator said on Wednesday.
Alexander Shadrin attended a ceremony in Moscow on Wednesday to return more than 150 church items seized in the U.S. last summer to the Russian Orthodox Church. The relics date back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
"There are plans to send investigators to the U.S. to resolve the issue of returning [another] 3.2 tons of church valuables seized in the U.S. more than a year ago," the investigator said. The items are worth an estimated 7.5 million rubles ($236,000).
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who took part in the ceremony, thanked Interior Ministry representatives for their assistance in returning icons, and urged for "greater efforts to ensure that items of world cultural heritage are brought back to Russia."
The investigation is part of a wider probe launched by the ministry into all thefts of relics from Russian churches and monasteries.
