ST. Petersburg, May 17 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg  on Tuesday declared prominent Russian art expert Yelena Basner not guilty to fraud, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

Basner was investigated over a painting, “In restaurant”, attributed to Boris Grigoryev, a well-known Russian artist of the first half of the 20th century. The painting, which was allegedly examined by Basner in 2009 and sold for $250,000, was proven to be a fake in 2011.

Basner, a former employee of the Bukowskis auction house as well as the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, was arrested on January 31, 2014. She was charged with large-scale fraud. On February 5, 2014, she was placed under house arrest. In January 2015, a court in St. Petersburg released Basner from house arrest.

According to investigators, in summer 2009 Mikhail Aranson, who is now wanted by police, in collaboration with unknown co-conspirators invited Basner to the criminal conspiracy of selling the fake painting. Investigators allege that Basner made up a sham story about the painting’s history and found the buyer, a publisher Leonid Shumakov. He, convinced of the painting’s authenticity, proposed his close friend, St. Petersburg art collector Andrei Vasilyev, to buy the painting.

Eventually, Vasilyev bought the fake painting for € 180,000 (13.2 million rubles), whereas its real price was 12,000 rubles (€ 163).

Prosecutors earlier asked the court to sentence Basner to 4 years in prison and fine her 500,000 rubles ($7,700).