Selling Russia's Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art, 1917–1938
The appalling facts about the crass and precipitous selling off of thousands of priceless Russian artworks, from Fabergé eggs to paintings by Rembrandt, in the wake of the 1917 Revolution have emerged slowly in the post-Soviet years. After an earlier Russian edition, art historian Semyonova, museum consultant Iljine, and their distinguished contributors now tell the entire staggering story of how Russia was brought to the very “edge of cultural catastrophe” as incomparable private art collections and the treasures of the church were nationalized, confiscated, and carelessly, cynically, and criminally sold in “clearance sales.” A dazzling spectrum of lost cultural artifacts and masterpieces are incisively assessed, from Russia’s extraordinarily opulent and intricate “crown jewels” to religious icons to paintings by Tiepolo, Titian, Raphael, Chardin, and Velásquez, some of which ended up, thanks to Andrew Mellon, in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. With precision and passion, the authors take measure of the irreparable damage done to Russia’s heritage for pitifully inadequate financial returns. An avidly researched, magnificently illustrated, and thought-provoking history of a country’s once glorious artistic splendor squandered. --Donna Seaman