8th January, 2018 by Owen Bellwood

A US$1.3 million bottle of Russo-Baltique vodka, stolen from a Copenhagen bar last week, has now been found drained and damaged.

The ‘one-of-a-kind’ bottle was stolen from Café 33 in Dybbølsgade on 2 January. However, Danish police have since sent out a tweet to confirm the bottle has been found.

The bottle, produced by military car manufacturer Dartz in honour of the 1912 Russo-Baltique rally car, was found discarded on a construction site in Charlottenlund, Denmark by a member of the public, who handed it over to police.

The US$1.3 million bottle had been on “indefinite loan” to Café 33 from its owner, Leonard F. Yankelovich, before it was stolen.

Café 33 owner Brian Ingberg told The New York Times: “There’s no doubt the thief got cold feet, he placed it there because he wanted it to be found.”

Yankelovich, founder of Dartz and the owner of the bottle, said he had a strong feeling the bottle would find its way back to him: “I trust the god of vodka.”

Russo-Baltique Vodka was first created in 2008 with funding from Kazakhstan royalty to mark the centenary of the opening of the Russo-Baltique car factory.

The manufacturer has said the vodka is not for drinking because “it is the brand of the vodka to be received by succession” and should be “part of the family artwork collections”.

The bottling is one of the most expensive vodkas in the world and appeared in Netflix series House of Cards. It is decorated with white and yellow gold and features a diamond-encrusted Russian imperial eagle at its head.