Swiss Businessman Tries to Seize Art in a Dispute With Russia

New York Times ^ | November 17, 2005 | By STEVEN LEE MYERS

[Republicanprofessor]

MOSCOW, Nov. 16 - A Swiss businessman's dogged, 14-year campaign to collect a debt from Russia has ensnared, briefly, 54 paintings from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts of Moscow that had been on display in Switzerland.

The paintings - including works by such masters as Poussin, Manet, Renoir and Cézanne and insured for more than $1 billion - were seized by the Swiss police late Tuesday night as the collection was being boxed up after a five-month exhibition at the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny.

Paintings that have been seized include, clockwise from top left, Paul Gauguin's "Are You Jealous?", Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Rey", Auguste Renoir's "Portrait of Mrs Jeanne Samary" and Picasso's "Spanish women on the island of Majorca." The authorities in the Swiss canton of Valais acted on a court order sought by Nessim D. Gaon, whose relentless legal assault on Russian assets abroad has previously been denounced here as "financial terrorism" and was again on Wednesday.

[son of caesar]

hmmmmmmmm, none of those artists mentioned appear to have russian names to me. perhaps russia might want to provide the provenence of said paintings. no, i bet they wont do that as a tremendous amt of art in russian museums and other museums worldwide are stolen anyways. dam i hate to bring this kind of stuff up, but i just have to. oh, they should pay the guy his money and move on.

[Republicanprofessor]

Some of the full images of the works referenced are these:

This is a great selection of modern art. I would love to see the other works.

[kaboom]

Tough to pick a side here, corrupt Russians...or money laundering Swiss.

The lineage of the money may be as questionable as that of the art.

[Republicanprofessor]

Art ping.

Let Sam Cree or me know if you want on or off this list.

[son of caesar]

good point, it did occur to me that this guy was doing business with the commies. is this a case of two thieves having a disagreement?

[MinuteGal]

Can you label those paintings, please?

Thanks,

Leni

[Wil H]

Top one is Gaugin, underneath is the Van Gogh, to it's right is Renoir, at the bottom is the Picasso

[MinuteGal]

Thanks. I recognized the styles, but really wanted to know the titles.

Leni

[LexBaird]

From the article: Paintings that have been seized include, clockwise from top left, Paul Gauguin's "Are You Jealous?", Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of Doctor Rey", Auguste Renoir's "Portrait of Mrs Jeanne Samary" and Picasso's "Spanish women on the island of Majorca."

[MinuteGal]

Thank you kindly, sir!

I'm enjoying the Renoir. It's lovely in every respect.

Leni

[Wil H]

Sorry, the titles were in the original posting.

[instantgratification]

Most of the art in Russian museums was collected by the Russian nobility - legally acquired, since these individuals were phenomenally wealthy. All of the pieces seized were donated to various Russian museums (and ended up in the Pushkin museum) by collectors from either St. Petersburg or Moscow.

[Republicanprofessor]

You are absolutely right. It is indeed amazing to us that Russia was on the cutting edge of avant-garde art before 1917. Sergei Schukin even commissioned three works by Matisse to fill his staircase. The third was never done, but Dance and Music were completed and looked very raw back in 1909-10. (They may still look raw to some.)

I love the way he captures just the essence of dance and music in these works.

[instantgratification]

My theory is that social upheaval creates an environment for great art. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol and Lermentov could not have existed in a peaceful state.

Russia was also on the cutting edge of avant garde art in the 1920's. That is, until Stalin seized power and had all the artists executed.

[Republicanprofessor]

Actually, I have been thinking about your response for the last few days. I think you are right, as long as there is freedom of expression.

But I am also trying to reconcile your statement with the very politically left artists today. Is it more radical to be a conservative artist now, dealing with warm human topics and not knee-jerk reactions to Bush? I think the left is strangling itself, although it would like to believe that it has led a revolution in art since the social revolutions of the sixties.

By the way, Stalin didn't kill quite all the artists. Some, like Malevich, survived but subjugated their freedom in art to produce the social and political propaganda that Stalin wanted. And yet I think Malevich was much like the composer Shostakovich: on the exterior a Stalin conformist, but in reality showing a darker side that Stalin was too dense to get.

[instantgratification]

I would not consider the US as a society in social upheaval. That may happen, but it hasn't. I view it as both vibrant and complacent - I know those are diametrically opposed, but there is an energy in the culture, and an optimism which is rare, yet a complacency about so many things which deserve anger.

In America, I think energy from the left appears most often in music. I think there will be something new and exciting, musically, in 2009 or 2010.

As for Stalin, there is more than one way to kill a human soul. Like the entire nation, no artist escaped Stalinism unscathed. I think particularly of Bulgakov, who deeply resented Stalin's censoring and "suggestions" re revisions of his works. The oppression he lived under lead to Bulgakov's early death.

There was a real revival of art in the USSR in the late 1980's, but only by a handful of artists, who had the mental fortitude to resist authorities.