In October 2004 unidentified persons stole 18 icons from the Stroganov Church in Nizhny Novgorod. An investigation into the theft was instituted.
One of the stolen icons was "Resurrection-Descent into Hell" (wood, tempera, 60.5 x 44 cm). Its present price is over $400,000. The icon was smuggled into the Baltic countries and after changing hands many times was put up for sale in Estonia in 2007. The Russian citizen who bought it brought it into Russia legally.
The icon "Resurrection-Descent into Hell" was painted by one of the most talented artisans at the Armoury, Kirill Ulanov (ordained as monk Cornilius), who was the Father Superior of the Nizhny Novgorod Krivozerskaya Pustyn since the mid-1710s. Kirill Ulanov, along with Simon Ushakov and Tikhon Filatyev, is an outstanding representative of the style of the Armoury craftsmen in late 17th and early 18th centuries. His works are in the collections of the Moscow Kremlin's Armoury, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pereyaslavl Museum of History and Arts, in some functioning churches in Moscow, the Moscow Region and other Russian regions.
In 1717 Father Cornilius worked in the Stroganov Church in Nizhny Novgorod built by the famous salt merchant G. Stroganov. The "Resurrection" icon was painted for that church.
The police in Nizhny Novgorod continue to search for the criminals and the stolen icons.