The Apparition of "Christ in the Tomb" at the Russian Museum, at the "Great Karl" Exhibition

I had not expected to see this painting at the grand jubilee exhibition of Karl Bryullov. The previously unknown canvas by Bryullov, which has now featured in legal proceedings for twenty years, was acquired in 2003 by the German collector Alexander Pevzner from the Russian Orthodox parish of the Resurrection in Brussels as a picture of unestablished authorship. The only thing beyond doubt was that it was the work of a Russian artist. So it was perfectly reasonable for the collector to decide to take the painting, which he supposed to be by Bryullov, to Russia for restoration and expert examination. And the supposition that the work belongs to Karl Bryullov was, in the end, confirmed. However, the work of art was declared with irregularities and in the end was confiscated from its owner, who went to law for almost all this time, but, as we now see, without success.

It emerged that the painting had been commissioned by the former Governor-General of Finland, Count Nikolay Adelberg, for the house church on his estate near Munich, where it spent the first 90 years of its life. In 1935, when the owner of the property, the son of the man who had commissioned it, was in the Stalinist camps, it was given to the Russian Orthodox church in Brussels. In 2003 the parish sold the painting, attributed to Karl Bryullov, for, as it were, 100 thousand euros, on the understanding that if the expert examination disproved the attribution, the terms of the purchase would be revised and the considerable sum returned to the buyer.