Stolen Chagall painting returned to New York

"Study for 'Over Vitebsk'"

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A million-dollar painting by the late Russian artist Marc Chagall that was stolen from a museum last June is back in New York.

The 1914 piece, "Study for 'Over Vitebsk,'" which depicts Chagall's hometown in Belarus, surfaced last month at a U.S. postal center in Topeka, Kansas. It had disappeared in 2000 off the walls of the Jewish Museum in Manhattan, where it was part of an exhibit of Chagall's early works held in Russian collections.

The FBI brought the painting to the museum, where it was authenticated Wednesday by Chagall's granddaughter, Bella Meyer, a leading authority on her grandfather's art, said FBI spokesman Joe Valiquette.

"We're very happy that the painting has been returned," said museum spokeswoman Anne Scher.

EXTRA INFORMATION More on the life of Marc Chagall

Scher told CNN that Meyer authenticated the 8-by-10-inch oil painting by removing it from the frame and examining the back of the canvas, where Chagall would write or leave paint stains as a trademark.

Meyer discovered a set of numbers on the back which she identified as being written in her grandfather's handwriting. She also observed the paint had bled through the canvas, a sign of an old painting.

The work shows an old man wearing a cap, carrying a walking stick and beggar's sack, floating in the sky above the village of Vitebsk. The painting was last seen in public June 7 last year during a museum cocktail party; it was gone the next day.

The only trace of it was a lone screw on the floor underneath where it had hung.

An unusual ransom note sent to the museum four days after the theft suggested the painting would be returned when peace was achieved "between Israel and Palestine." The letter, postmarked in the Bronx, was signed by a previously unknown group, the "International Committee for Art and Peace."

A postal employee in the Topeka dead letter office discovered a painting that appeared to be the stolen work January 22. Wrapped in brown paper, the package had been addressed to a nonexistent location in St. Paul, Minn. and was redirected to the Topeka facility.

Upon opening the package, the worker saw the painting bore several stickers from museums and galleries on the back. She checked the FBI Web site for stolen art, saw the stolen Chagall listed, and called the FBI.

Valiquette said the theft is still being investigated and that several leads in the Midwest are being pursued, though the FBI is "not on the cusp of filing charges."

It was not yet known whether the painting would return for further display at the museum or be shipped back to the its current owner in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Chagall, who left Russia in 1922 and settled in France, died in 1985 at the age of 98. Many of his paintings depict Jewish folklore and scenes of pre-World War I life in Russia.