The frescoes were recently uncovered in a room at the Church of the Birth of John the Baptist in Presnya, located on a quiet side street near the Moscow Zoo. Vasnetsov painted the frescoes in the 1890s, but they were painted over in the Soviet era and forgotten for decades.
The restoration will give art historians a chance to examine previously unstudied works by the artist, who is best known for "The Three Bogatyrs," a painting of three medieval Russian warriors on horseback that often turns up in parodies and advertisements.
The discovery also comes at a time when works by Vasnetsov and his peers are hot items on the art market, eagerly snapped up by rich Russians seeking to amass prestigious art collections. Last year, a canvas by the artist called "Wise Oleg" set a record for his work when it sold for $637,000 at a Sotheby's auction in London.
Vasnetsov was born in 1848 in a remote village in the present-day Kirov region and later moved to St. Petersburg to study art.
He rose to prominence as a member of the Wanderers movement, which rebelled against the classical style taught at the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, choosing to depict realistic scenes from Russian life instead.
Later, Vasnetsov switched to mythological and fairy-tale themes. He died in Moscow in 1926.
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