Berlin police: Russian artist condemned by Orthodox Church reported missing

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The Associated Press Published: March 27, 2008
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BERLIN: A Russian artist who has been condemned by the Orthodox Church for an exhibit in her home country has been missing from her apartment in western Berlin since Friday, police said Thursday.

Anna Mikhalchuk, 52, left her apartment on March 21 and has not been seen since, police spokeswoman Gabriele Kobbe told The Associated Press.

"The investigation is continuing but we do not have any concrete hints at this point," Kobbe said.

Mikhalchuk, also known in Russia under the name of Anna Alchuk, moved to Berlin with her husband in November 2007.

In 2005, Mikhalchuk was tried by a Moscow court on charges of inciting religious hatred for her works in a controversial art exhibit condemned by the Russian Orthodox Church. She was acquitted.

The 2003 exhibit — titled "Caution, Religion" — was organized by the Sakharov Museum, which is also a leading activist group, promoting democracy and human rights in Russia.

Sakharov Museum director Yury Samodurov said Thursday that he was deeply concerned to hear of Mikhalchuk's disappearance and expressed hope it was not connected with her work at the museum.

"I can hardly believe anyone would intentionally pursue somebody, especially when she was found innocent by the courts," he told The Associated Press in Moscow. "I just hope she is found."

According to a report in Berlin's Tagesspiegel daily, Mikhalchuk's husband Michail Ryklin informed police about her disappearance late Friday. Ryklin, is in Berlin on a scholarship and teaches at the Humboldt University.

On Saturday he sent a letter to Berlin police asking them to intensify their search, Tagesspiegel reported on Thursday.

"A political or anti-Semitic crime cannot be disqualified," the paper quoted him as writing, adding that there had been several anonymous threats against Mikhalchuk in the past.

Ryklin declined to comment on his wife's disappearance, Tanja Postpischil from his publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag, told The Associated Press.

The 2003 exhibit at the Moscow museum included a Russian Orthodox-style icon with a hole instead of a head where visitors could insert their faces. Another work featured a Coca-Cola logo with Jesus' face drawn next to it and the words: "This is my blood."

Members of the Russian Orthodox Church called the exhibit blasphemous and insulting.

For days after opening, the exhibit was vandalized and six attackers were detained and charged with hooliganism. Those charges were dropped after a publicity campaign conducted by a Russian Orthodox priest.

About two-thirds of Russia's 144 million people are considered Orthodox Christians. After decades of state-sponsored atheism, destroyed churches have been rebuilt and many Russians have embraced the church and its rituals.

However, the dominance of the Russian Orthodox Church and its centuries-old ties to the state have prompted concern among religious minorities. Some professed atheists claim that religious symbolism is as omnipresent and oppressive as atheism was in Soviet times.

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