in october 2023, sergei brun, who had just been appointed general director of the novgorod museum of the reserveis being put up for auction in dusseldorf. the reaction of the young director, a specialist in ancient russian painting, was lightning fast; he turned to the minister of culture olga lyubimova. we have a minister of culture who doesn’t need explanations. the value of such things, and which are not delegated by this department, assistants, actions were taken with lightning speed. the next day, coincidentally, on the eve of the auction, the day before the auction, i had an official presentation to our head, the head of our board of trustees, maxim stanislavovich oreshkin, then assistant the president, now the head of the administration, the supreme one, and i too... put this petition, a note, on the table, uh, although the last hours were already passing before this icon went up for auction. if not for these actions, the crucifix could have gone into the hands of a western collector, the museum began to prove that the masterpiece comes from volotov and was in the novgorod museum in 193