Translated material
Elena Basner will remain under arrest until December 15
Elena Basner will remain under arrest until December 15
© NTVThe Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg extended until December 15 the deadline for concluding art critic Elena Basner in the fraud case in the sale of the picture.
Information about the extension of the arrest was confirmed by COLTA.RU Elena Basner Vladimir Katsnelson.
Candidate of Art History Elena Basner is suspected that in 2009 it gave a false expert opinion on the authenticity of the picture of Boris Grigoryev, which was subsequently sold for $ 250 thousand.
On January 31, 2014, Basner was detained by law enforcement agencies after she arrived in St. Petersburg from Helsinki for two days.
On February 4, she was officially charged under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code (“Fraud on an especially large scale”; maximum punishment under this article is imprisonment for up to ten years).
On February 5, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg decided to conclude Elena Basner to custody, and on April 15 extended the arrest until September 15.
Elena Basner's colleagues do not admit that she can be involved in fraud and fight for her release. Director of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky and even collector Andrei Vasiliev, who bought a fake picture, opposed the content of the art critic, who bought a fake picture.