Alexander Khochinsky extradition from the USA

[Dogel]

Russian art dealer Alexander Khochinsky challenged the request of the Polish authorities, who demanded his extradition from the United States, reports Reuters. the 64-year-old antique dealer filed a motion in Federal court in Manhattan on Thursday evening, April 2.

The Polish authorities have accused Russian illegal possession of the artist's paintings of Antoine pan's "Girl with a dove" ("the Girl with the goldfinch", 1754). This is one of 63 thousand works of art lost in Poland during the Second world war, said the Ministry of culture and national heritage of the country. In Warsaw argue that the canvas pan since 1931 was in the collection of the Museum in Poznan. In 1943, the painting was stolen by the Nazis, and in 1945 she was found by the soldiers of the red army, and the work of the pan fell into one of the storage of the Soviet Union.

In 2012, the court in Poznan decided to arrest Khochinsky. The United States authorities arrested him on February 26, 2015 (Russian collector lived in Manhattan, and later on bail of $100 thousand let him go.

In submitted to the court documents, lawyers Khochinsky deny the existence of a crime. Advocates indicated that their client back in 2010 offered the Polish side to buy a painting. The lawyers also noted that their client was open to negotiations with Poland, but the picture remained in Russia because of the ban to export the goods purchased during the war.

Lawyers antiquary stressed that under Russian law Khochinsky is the legitimate owner of the picture: he inherited it from his father, who died in 1991. The work of Antoine pan for many years hung in his apartment in Leningrad.

U.S. district judge jed Rakoff will consider the request Khochinsky 8 may. A spokesman for the Prosecutor of the Manhattan Relieved Bharara, who will consider the request for extradition, declined to comment.