The six defendants – five men and one woman – were found guilty of criminal conspiracy in France early Saturday, with some also convicted of stealing exhibited cultural property. The harshest sentence was handed to 50-year-old Micheil S., who received seven years in prison and a lifetime ban from entering France. He had already been sentenced in Lithuania to three years and four months for similar crimes.
The gang also struck in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Their haul included works by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, and Mikhail Lermontov, worth several million euros in total. The prosecution described the crimes as “massive, organized, planned, and carried out with care and cynicism,” emphasizing the international scope of the case.
Two of the defendants were sentenced in absentia, as they are imprisoned in Georgia, which does not extradite its own citizens. Two others had already been convicted in other countries and were temporarily transferred to France. The investigation was coordinated by Europol and Eurojust, with several arrests made as early as 2024.
Source: www.spiegel.de
