In Sofia, Vasily Vereshchagin’s triptych “Everything is Calm on Shipka!” was stolen from an exhibition.

with reference to sources in law enforcement agencies in Bulgaria. According to them, Vereshchagin's painting was stolen around 15:00 from the National Exhibition Center located on Vitosha Boulevard in the center of Sofia.

Along with Vereshchagin's canvas, a work by the artist Nikolai Pavlovich was stolen, RIA Novosti reports.

Vereshchagin's painting "Everything is calm on Shipka!" exhibited as part of an exhibition dedicated to the 130th anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke. The exhibition was located on the third floor of the National Exhibition Center.

The criminal, according to preliminary data, acted alone, although it is quite possible that accomplices were waiting for him on the street. The attacker was recorded by two external surveillance cameras: one installed directly at the exit from the exhibition hall, the other at the exit from the exhibition center itself.

The attacker took advantage of the fact that the exhibition was changing in other halls of the center, and the center’s employees, as well as exhibition participants, were moving a large number of paintings. Having mixed with them, the criminal managed to carry out two canvases and disappeared.

Now the law enforcement agencies of Sofia are working in an enhanced mode, all vehicles that were recorded by external surveillance cameras near the exhibition center are being inspected.

Reference

Vasily Vereshchagin is a Russian painter and writer, one of the most famous battle painters in the world of the second half of the 19th century.

Triptych "Everything is calm on Shipka!" (“The Sentinel on Shipka”), created in 1878-1879, is part of a series of works by the artist about the Russian-Turkish War, written by him after a trip to the front.

The work tells the story of a frozen sentry who was not relieved at his post during a snowstorm. The name was taken by the artist from the cynical report of General Fyodor Radetsky, whose army lost more soldiers from frostbite and disease than in battles.

The painting was sold by Vereshchagin himself at an auction in New York in 1890. From then on, no trace of it was lost until 1992, when Capital Bank acquired it from an unnamed seller in New York. According to unconfirmed reports, the triptych belonged to a private collector when it was stolen from an exhibition in Sofia.