Moscow ? A painting believed to have been stolen from St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum five years ago was presented Wednesday to the leader of Russia’s Communist Party.

A stranger called Gennady Zyuganov’s office in the headquarters of parliament’s lower house in the morning, saying he would like to give the picture to the Communist leader, party spokesmen said.

“Once the canvas was brought in, we began searching for information about the painting, and eventually came across an official statement by the Hermitage administration saying that an unidentified person had cut Jean Leon Gerome’s ‘Piscine du Harem’ (‘Harem Pool’) out of its frame on March 22, 2001,” Zyuganov said.

The 1878 picture was bought into Russia by Emperor Alexander III, and its value is estimated at $1 million.