What a story!

Who needs mystery books and movies when stories like this are real? The 400 year-old “The Resurrection of Christ” painting by Peter Paul Rubens was recently discovered in a storage room at the famed St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum. It is believed that Catherine the Great gave this amazing triptych to the Trinity Cathedral at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery (the most important monastery in the capital) as a gift sometime during the 1790’s. It was prominently displayed for almost 300 years until Stalin took power.

In 1934, during the time of Stalin’s anti-religious persecution, it’s understood that someone from the Hermitage’s staff rescued the painting by removing the frame, rolling it up, and hiding it in a storage room at the Hermitage Museum. Completely forgotten from memory, the painting was unrolled once in the past 80 years. In 1951, it was glanced at and quickly categorized as a “copy”. A few short years ago, it was found again and understood to be the “real deal”. “The Resurrection of Christ” was sent to the Hermitage’s new restoration center a little ways from the famous St. Petersburg institution. As it was rolled and stored inadequately, the painting became warped and darkened substantially. The piece is now completely restored and deemed as definitely Ruben’s (and not someone from his “school”), “The Resurrection of Christ” is on display through October 2nd.