The investigation found that citizen of Uzbekistan Maksim Suchilin by prior agreement with the director of the museum Lyubov Illarionova and chief curator of the museum Asiya Aglyamova between 2005 an 2011 was engaged in the theft of works of fine art and graphic works of Ufimtsev and other famous artists of Uzbekistan, which were in the collection of the museum, by replacing the original works to fake copies.

During the investigation, paintings of Ufimtsev “Flower of Life”, “Khiva. The architectural landscape of the old town”, “Khiva. Minaret”, “Portrait of a Woman”, “The exhibits of the Kabul Museum” were returned to the museum.

Paintings of Yuan under conditional name of “Russian peasant woman” and work of unknown painter under conditional name “Landscape” were seized from citizen of Russia Rashid Sultanov.

It was revealed that works of Ufimtsev were found in private collections in Moscow (Russia) and demonstrated at the exhibition. Some works were put to auctions with the price range of US$1,000 to US$21,000.

Currently, Suchilin is wanted by the law enforcement bodies. Uzbekistan is working with Russia on returning the paintings to the country.