01:28 PM PST on Friday, November 14, 2003

By TERESA BELL, kgw.com Staff

Police are searching for an $80,000 Russian painting they said was stolen from a Portland gallery recently.

The 10’ by 14’ painting is 117 years old and was created by Martselli Gavrilovich Sukhorovski, a popular Russian artist who died in 1908, said Portland Police Dept. spokesman Henry Groepper.

This Martselli Gavrilovich Sukhorovski painting is worth about $80,000. (Police photo/kgw.com)

"They knew what they were doing because the building is very secure,” Groepper said. “They forced their way in through the roof… and even had to break their way out.”

The Sukhorovski painting depicts a woman of the Kasak tribe and a string of pearls representing the wages of sin. The woman in the painting is reclining on a divan covered with a tribal rug. The frame around the painting was manufactured in Dusseldorf Germany in 1902, according to markings on the back.

The painting was not insured, Groepper said.

Two other paintings were found in the gallery cut out of their frames but Groepper said it appeared the thieves decided to leave those 19th century paintings behind. They are worth far less than the Sukhorovski; one is a French painting worth about $5,000 and the other is an Italian painting valued at $ 1,000, Groepper said.

The investigation continues.