Alfred Kokha is accused of smuggling

The FSB is investigating in relation to Alfred Koch, the former Deputy Prime Minister and the head of the State Property Committee, a criminal case in connection with an attempt to illegally export the valuable work of painting outside Russia.

According to Koch on his Facebook, in April, at the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport, customs officers seized him a picture, presumably, the work of Isaac Brodsky (1883–1939).

Koch explains that his wife bought her in the late 1990s, “for solidity, this picture was accompanied by ... the conclusion of experts Gladkova L.I. and Lomiza I.E. ". However, they admitted that the signature in the picture was set later, nothing was known about its previous owners.

After buying a picture, Koch’s wife also showed her “many experts and famous collectors and all unanimously said that it was unconditionally a fake (fake) and the authorship of Brodsky could not talk.”

This was confirmed by employees of the All-Russian Art-Restoration Center named after I.E. Grabar, who, on the proposal of customs, has given an expert opinion on the authenticity of the picture.

Nevertheless, in the central apparatus of the FSB, where, according to Koch, the case was transferred from customs, they considered it necessary to conduct a second examination, and the same experts Gladkov and Lomiz, who once confirmed the authenticity of the picture, were involved in it.

“Thus, we now have a commission in which experts should either recognize a fake - a original, or contradict their own conclusion, made 15 years ago for understanding what goals ...”, Coch sums up.

Former comrades of Koch told RBC that the cause of criminal prosecution is the journalistic activity of Koch on social networks, where he publishes materials with a sharp criticism of the current leadership of Russia. Alfred Koch is currently abroad.