On 22 March 2001 an extraordinary event took place in the exhibition room housing 19th-century French paintings; this is Room 300 on the 2nd floor (3rd floor, USA) of the Winter Palace. The painting Pool in Harem by Jean Léon Gérôme was cut out of the frame and stolen.

The Central Board of Internal Affairs of St Petersburg and Leningrad Region holds the investigation.

General information on the painting
Gérôme, Jean Léon
1824-1904
Pool in Harem
1876
Inventory number GE-6221
Oil on canvas; 73.5 x 62 cm
Almost by the mid of the right edge is the author's signature
J. L. GÉRÔME
The painting was displayed in the salon of 1876
Provenance: acquired for Grand Prince Alexander Alexandrovich (Emperor Alexander III); transferred from the Anichkov Palace, Petrograd, 1918
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Jean Léon Gérôme, French artist and sculptor, whose works combined elements of the classical and romantic schools, pupil of the artist Hippolyte Paul Delaroche. His works were devoted to the history of France and Ancient Greece, but after his trip to Turkey and Egypt the artist produced works on Oriental themes showing Mauritanian exotics world. He is considered as a founder of Neo-Greek Style in painting.

Press Service of the State Hermitage Museum
23 March 2001