A Dutch artist unwittingly played a role in the spying adventure of a Russian couple who were released last week in a major prisoner swap between Russia, Belarus and several Western countries that resulted in the release of a total of 24 prisoners.

Artem Doltsev and Anna Doltseva were sent to Slovenia by Russia years ago to gather intelligence. They posed as an Argentine couple with two children who had an IT company and an art gallery in Slovenia. Anna called herself Maria Rosa Mayer Muñoz and in that role sold, among other things, paintings by Mariquin Hegoijen.

“I reached out to her after I messaged her on Instagram because she had a really cool gallery,” the artist says. News hour“I represented some foreign artists and thought it would be fun to do something in Slovenia as well. We clicked and she asked me if I wanted to send some paintings to an art gallery in Zagreb, Croatia, so she could represent me there.”

After Maria sold two of her paintings, a meeting in Slovenia followed. “She came across as a very nice, sincere Latina who spoke Spanish and English very quickly. I didn’t know any better than she was from South America. She was even a bit shy. Because we clicked, I asked her if she wanted to be my art agent, and she would get back to that, but then I guess she didn’t want to involve me in her horrible affairs.

In Russia there are two categories of intelligence officers: legal and illegal. A legal intelligence officer is stationed in an embassy, ​​while an illegal intelligence officer has no clear ties to Moscow. Artem Doltsev and Anna Doltseva worked as illegal agents.

“There is a very important difference between the two, which is that a legal intelligence officer cannot be brought to justice. At most, he will be deported from the country,” says Ben de Jong, an intelligence researcher at Leiden University. “The situation is different for illegal immigrants: they do not have diplomatic immunity and can be convicted. The risk of this construction makes them vulnerable.”

Shortly after the artist met Ana Doltseva, the spy couple were arrested in Slovenia after a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service. Slovenian authorities found large sums of cash in their offices, which they may have used to pay off other informants. The couple ended up in prison and their two children were placed in foster care.

It was only later that Hegegne heard what was happening. “I got a phone call from a lawyer. He wanted my address so he could return my paintings because Maria could no longer be my art agent. That scared me and I asked him what had happened. He told me she was fine, but she could. She no longer worked for me and she stopped answering my emails.”

A Slovenian journalist later told her the whole story. “You’re shocked: you think you know someone, but then it turns out it’s all a lie. She wasn’t alone.” royal “A client, but also a secret agent.”

The couple told the pro-Kremlin Rossiya 24 TV channel that they were so immersed in their role that they could barely speak their native language. Their children only learned their parents’ true identities on the plane to Russia:

De Jong was not surprised by the release of the spy couple. “Putin did not want to risk years in prison, and the domestic security service began to ask: Who exactly are your contacts? How did you work? By releasing them, Putin is also sending an indirect message to other intelligence services and individuals who are still active: If you are caught, we will make sure you are released.”

The question now is whether the spies will be able to resume their normal lives in Russia. “It will take some effort on their part,” De Jong predicts.

“They have to educate their children: they not only have a new homeland, but they also have to get acquainted with a new language and a new environment. Moreover, in Russia, suspicion and paranoia are rampant. There have been cases where people have always maintained distrust of old spies, because their own services assumed that they might have talked to the local security service, and it seems impossible to me that they could continue their careers within this intelligence service in Russia.