Selling Russia's treasures : the Soviet trade in nationalized art, 1917-1938 /
880-02Semenova, N. I︠U︡.,editor.
Iljine, Nicolas V.,1944-,editor.
M.T. Abraham Center for the Visual Arts.
Selling Russia's Treasures documents one of the great cultural dramas of the twentieth century: the sale, by a cash-hungry Soviet government, of the artistic treasures accumulated by the Russian aristocracy over the centuries and nationalized after the October 1917 revolution. An astonishing variety of objects, from icons and illuminated manuscripts to Fabergé eggs and Old Master paintings, entered the collections of wealthy Westerners like Andrew Mellon and Armand Hammer in the 1920s and 30s. Written by the leading experts in the field and long regarded as the definitive book on the subject, the original Russian edition of Selling Russia's Treasures is sought after scholars and laymen alike. Now, for the first time, it is made available in English, in a revised and expanded edition that includes a new chapter on the secret files of the Hermitage, previously considered lost, as well as new research on the sale of religious art, and of twentieth-century French masterworks from the Museum of New Western Art. Numerous color plates reunite long-dispersed works in a virtual museum that illustrates the powerful blow inflicted on Russia's cultural heritage by these secretive sales, and rare photographs and archival documents help bring this buried history to light.
Revised and expanded translation of Prodannye sokrovishcha Rossii.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 354-356) and index.
The lessons of the museum sales / Mikhail Piotrovsky -- The temple of fine arts / Amir G. Kabiri -- Inspired by the past / Dmitry Gourji -- Citizens, preserve monuments of art! -- The Romanov treasure trail -- The pillage of the Russian Church -- Russian icons and art market / Yuri Pyatnitsky -- The palace-museums / Rifat Gafifullin -- The destruction of the Hermitage / Elena Solomakha -- Museum of Modern Western Art : bargain sales of the 1920s-1930s / Alexey Petukhov -- Books for sale / Elena Emelianova -- Buyers, collectors and collections -- In place of an epilogue / Pavel Khoroshilov -- The Russian crown jewels / Victor Nikitin -- Russian icons in European collections / Yuri Pyatnitsky.
Selling Russia's Treasures documents one of the great cultural dramas of the twentieth century: the sale, by a cash-hungry Soviet government, of the artistic treasures accumulated by the Russian aristocracy over the centuries and nationalized after the October 1917 revolution. An astonishing variety of objects, from icons and illuminated manuscripts to Fabergé eggs and Old Master paintings, entered the collections of wealthy Westerners like Andrew Mellon and Armand Hammer in the 1920s and 30s. Written by the leading experts in the field and long regarded as the definitive book on the subject, the original Russian edition of Selling Russia's Treasures is sought after scholars and laymen alike. Now, for the first time, it is made available in English, in a revised and expanded edition that includes a new chapter on the secret files of the Hermitage, previously considered lost, as well as new research on the sale of religious art, and of twentieth-century French masterworks from the Museum of New Western Art. Numerous color plates reunite long-dispersed works in a virtual museum that illustrates the powerful blow inflicted on Russia's cultural heritage by these secretive sales, and rare photographs and archival documents help bring this buried history to light.
Gosudarstvennyĭ Ėrmitazh (Russia)
Art and state
Export marketing
Cultural property
Art