Last Monday Marienkirche church in Frankfurt an der Oder celebrated holiday. Tuda returned six XIV century stained-glass windows, removed during the Second World War, the Soviet soldiers. This year, the State Duma deputies voted in favor of their return to Germany.

The six fragments - parts of a huge (20 meters in height) of song, where are depicted scenes from the Bible. The initial composition consisted of 117 parts. During the war, the priceless stained glass windows were removed and отвезены in Potsdam, where they were placed in the basement of one of the palaces. At the end of the war they were soldiers of Soviet Army and took away with them.

111 fragments of a long time before the State Hermitage Museum, while in 2002 the authorities did not decide that they need to return Germany - аккурат to the 750 th anniversary Marienkirche. The remaining six parts, which include images of Adam and Eve and Noah's ark shall be forfeited. But in 2001, former scientific secretary of the Pushkin Museum Pushkin Andrei Vorobyov said that they found in the museum store. The segments are not presented and is not restored - the Pushkin Museum leadership feared that Germany, having learned about the location of stained glass would require them to return. But now, as we see the missing pieces of all, returned home. Restorer Maynung Sandra (Sandra Meinung), which worked on the first installment of stained glass, said that the restoration of the six pieces will require more than a year.

Germany has long sought the return of works of art that have been removed from its territory by Soviet troops. In 1958, the USSR returned to East Germany, 1.5 million captured works. According to rumors, in this country is still about a million paintings, sculpture, decorative and applied arts ... Sometimes some of them still come back to Germany, but in general it is not the Russian authorities are planning a large-scale restitution.

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova

Sources: boston.com , kommersant.ru , artinvestment.ru