An Icon by Ancient Painters as an Antiques Market Item and a Target of Crime in the 19th Century (Based on the Materials of Novgorod Governorate)

The article characterizes the peculiarities of the formation of the antiques market in Russia in the XIX century. Based on the analysis of judicial practice presented by archival materials, the authors identify the factors that had a decisive influence on the formation of supply and demand within the framework of the turnover of artistic values of religious content. The article proves that the peculiarity of the active development of the illegal antiques market in Russia was the influence of the intra-church split that occurred in the XVII century, which generated the interest of certain sections of the merchant class in the icons of “Doniconian writing”. The archival document analyzed by the authors contains evidence of the spread in the second half of the XIX century. those forms of theft of icons that are characteristic of modern criminal practice, which makes it possible to consider the historical experience of combating the “black market” of antiques relevant in modern conditions.