Parcul Carol I
Upon his return to Bucharest, Ilie Cătărău underwent a change of lifestyle, which later fueled speculations about Russian payments. According to "Românul": "his relationship with the agents of another state grew ever closer and since then he was seen in elegant clothes, he frequented dives where he gambled large sums of money and was seen in the company of the Capital's most elegant "hetairai"." He began associating with a Timofei Kiriloff, who was either a Russian or Bulgarian expatriate. One reconstructed biographical sketch of Kiriloff presents him as an escapee from the "Potemkin" mutiny, who supported himself in Bucharest by posing for painters and sculptors. His athletic body is supposedly the model for Friedrich Storck's statue of a giant, now in Carol Park. Others suggest that the inspiration for that sculpture was Cătărău himself.