Caravaggio's outstanding painting "The Betrayal of Christ" that was stolen from a Ukrainian museum, has been returned to Ukraine by the presidential aircraft, the president’s press service has told recently.

The restoration of the painting will be held in Kyiv. Then the painting will be sent to an Odesa museum after the museum is equipped with the required security systems.

As it was reported, the painting, by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Caravaggio, which was stolen from Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, was returned to a Ukrainian delegation headed by the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych during their visit to Germany on Monday.

Caravaggio's "The Betrayal of Christ," one of the pearls of the collection of Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art was stolen from the museum on July 31, 2008. Many experts estimate the work to be worth 100 million of USD. Hence, some experts believe that the stolen painting is an author's copy at best, and the original is in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.

On June 25, 2010 in Berlin a group of three citizens of Ukraine and one resident of Germany, who were making attemps to sell the painting, were detained in Germany.