Russia plans to put up for auction the painting 'Moonlit Night' by Ivan Aivazovsky, which was stolen from the Mariupol Local History Museum and taken to the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea, wrote the former prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Gunduz Mamedov.

The painting 'Moonlit Night' will be the main lot at the auction, which will take place in Moscow on February 18. Its starting price is 100 million rubles (one million dollars).

In 2017, Interpol declared the stolen paintings internationally wanted. Russia violates international law, in particular the 1970 UNESCO Convention, which prohibits the export and transfer of ownership rights to cultural assets, says Mamedov.

More than 50 paintings by the artist, which belong to the Museum Fund of Ukraine, including 'Moonlit Night', were exhibited at the Mariupol Local History Museum at the time of the annexation of Crimea.

The exhibition was planned to be completed in May 2014, but the management of the Simferopol museum closed it prematurely after the occupation of the peninsula.