As Leonid Ragozin reported for Bloomberg News, Sergei Sotov, the creator of the work, initially told Russian journalists that he did not mind his works being taken and valued the painting, attached to cardboard he recovered from the trash, as worth no more than about $2. He also said that he had been asked to file a complaint.

The case caused some disagreement between the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, an elite force similar to the F.B.I., and the prosecutor who charged the activist, according to leaked correspondence obtained and posted online by Mr. Alburov.

In his closing remarks at the trial, Mr. Alburov insisted that the prosecution was politically motivated, and related more to his research into the ill-gotten gains of senior officials, than any desire to protect Mr. Sotov’s street art.