The Potomack Company
Timothy Dunham, FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office Criminal Division; Jennifer Pingle, daughter of Mr.and Mrs. David Tracy, who brought the painting to Potomack; Valeriy Chaly, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S.; Jessie Liu, U.S. Attorney's Office of D.C., and Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, owner and CEO of the Potomack Company.
A painting that was stolen during World War II and thought to be destroyed will be on display for viewing Nov. 9 - 15.
The massive 7½’ x 8 ½;’ canvas depicts the 16th-century Russian czar "Ivan the Terrible" fleeing the Kremlin on horseback.
In 2017, before retiring to a smaller residence, a couple from Ridgefield, Conn., Mr. and Mrs. David Tracy, reached out to the Potomack Company auction gallery in Alexandria to sell their artwork, which included the “Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible Before the Oprichina.” The painting had conveyed with their Ridgefield home when they purchased it in 1987.
In 1962, the painting with the sale of the house by a Swiss citizen who emigrated to the United States in 1946. That person, the original homeowner, had served in the Swiss Army during World War II, and he died in 1986.
Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, owner and CEO of The Potomack Company, contacted the FBI and worked with the agency and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which handled the case and collaborated with Ukraine diplomats to arrange the painting’s return to its native country. (Read the official complaint from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.)
The Ukraine is now waiting on funds to bring the painting back to its rightful home.
While it awaits transport from here in Alexandria, The Potomack Company is putting it up on display for one week at the auction house at 1120 N. Fairfax St.
The painting will be on display from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 10, and 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, Nov. 11 - 15.
The work was painted in 1911 by Ukrainian artist Mikhail Panin.
