A Moscow museum head has been detained at an airport as he tried to smuggle in a 17th-century icon valued at $1 million that was stolen from Russia in 1994, police said.
The 62-year-old man, identified by the news site Life News as private Russian Icon museum director Nikolai Zadorozhny, was carrying the 1690 icon Old Testament Trinity.
The picture, made by artist Kirill Ulanov, had been on an international wanted list since it was stolen from a museum in the central Vologda region in 1994.
Zadorozhny, who has a previous criminal record, denies any wrongdoing, claiming he bought it from a private holder in Germany.
Police said they acted on a tip-off.