Sale of paintings from the Hermitage collection
 

Sale of paintings from the Hermitage collection - taken by the government of Soviet Russia act of sale of paintings in the Hermitage collection, which occurred in 1929-1934 gg.

All of the funds and the exposure was chosen 2880 paintings, 350 of which represented the works of great artistic value, and 59 - masterpieces of world importance, a small portion of them, not finding a buyer, still come back, but 48 well-known masterpieces ever left Russia - including work of such masters as Jan van Eyck, Titian, Rembrandt and Raphael. Some of these paintings were in the collection ever since it was founded by Catherine the Great. It was also sold a collection of Netherlandish and Flemish paintings (about 700 paintings), collected and bequeathed to the museum by PP Semenov-Tian-Shansky, as well as some other collections, donated to the Hermitage in the late period (eg, Stroganoff).

In addition, from the Hermitage art sold silver, bronze, numismatic collections, Byzantine enamel.

State Hermitage Museum and Soviet scientists at the time of removal of exhibits from the Hermitage, as well as the general public - after the publication of information on the extent of losses in the 1990's, this sale of national patrimony and cultural heritage is regarded as a "tragedy and catastrophe", "madness", " piecemeal, often awkward, even meaningless, and therefore deplorable in its results of activities.

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1928
Hermitage and Russian Museum are the lists.
Decided to transfer all powers to sell art treasures through the Commissariat of Foreign Trade and personally Mikoyan.
June 4, 1929:
At the Berlin auction Molding exhibited "Portrait of the spouses" Lorenzo Lotto (not sold), "The Entombment" Rubens (not sold). Sold: "The head of an old man" by Rembrandt - 138 thousand marks, "Portrait of an old man" Unocal van Cleve - 100 thousand, "Portrait of Frederick the Wise" Cranach Jr.. and 28, 5 thousand, "St. Jerome" by Titian - 26 thousands, his "Madonna with Child" - over 25 thousand. About the same - from 16 to 25 thousand - was the final price and paintings Moroni, Cantarini, Bordon, Bassano, Robert, Canaletto, Bern.
Summer 1929:
Removed from the Hermitage "Bathers" Lancret and "herd near the stream" Veniksa, "Bravo" Becker "Eve celebration in Rome," Achenbach, "galloping horse" and "Last Supper" by Van Dyck, "The Ascension of Mary" Rubens' Massacre of the Innocents " Giorgione, Portrait of the Doge "Tintoretto," View of the Doge's palace "and" Palazzo Labia "Canaletto work Vigee-Lebrun, Lampi, Bern, Greuze, Panini, van Hovena, Lorrain, and many others.
April 1929:
Gulbenkian acquired "Annunciation" Dirk Boats (54 thousand pounds) - the picture is not from the store, and from the main exhibition, and the only "Boats" Hermitage.
It is the same: two paintings by Hubert Robert, they depict scenes to clean the park of Versailles, affected by Hurricane
24 subject of French silver, performed the largest French masters of XVIII century by the orders of Russian Empress Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II
table-secretary of the era of Louis XVI furniture maker of the famous Parisian Rizenera. All together - 54 150 pounds.
Dirk Boats (niderl. Dirk Bouts; Dirik, Thierry Bauts, about 1415, Haarlem - May 6, 1475, Leuven) - Netherlandish painter.
"Annunciation", XV century.

Cyril Syzransky, thanks for the info ... did not know about this fact.
Hm ... the power was simply wonderful ... but what surprised after the destruction of churches: (

January 1930:
Rembrandt, "Portrait of Titus" (bought Gyulbenkyanom)
Watteau. "Lute Player". (Gyulbenkyanom bought, then resold the Metropolitan Museum in 1934)
Van Dyck, "Portrait of Suzanne Fourment daughter" (bought by Mellon)
Van Dyck, "Portrait of Philip, Lord Wharton" (similar), 250 thousand pounds
   

May 1930:
Nicolas Lancret, "Bathers" (Gyulbenkyanom bought, then resold to George Vildensteinu. Now in private collection)
"Pallas" Rembrandt
"Music Lesson" Gerard Terborch - 120 thousand for all the pictures (including "Lute-Player" Watteau)
statue of "Diana" Houdon (same) - 20 thousand pounds
Rubens, "Portrait of Helena Fourman - 55 thousand pounds
15 silverware - 100 thousand pounds (all purchased Gyulbenkyanom)
Sold masterpieces of the 1 st series of Master Quantity
Botticelli 1
Boats 1
Van Dyke 7
Van Eyk 3
Velazquez 1
Veronese 1
Perugino 1
Poussin 1
Rembrandt (and school) 10
Rubens 4
Titian 1
Tiepolo 1
  

June-July 1930: Jan Van Eyck, "The Annunciation", (sold to Mellon for 502 899 $)
Van Dyck, "Portrait of Isabella Brandt (sold to Mellon for $ 223 000)
  

October-November 1930 Rembrandt, "Portrait of an old man", (sold Gyulbenkyanu, 30 000 pounds) - his last purchase
Adriaen Hanneman, «Portrait of Henry, Duke of Gloucester" (bought by Mellon)
Veronese, "Finding of Moses" (bought by Mellon)
   

Also, the doublet of the numismatic department of the Hermitage Fund allocated 347 gold and 17 platinum coins, provided for the export of cuirass and helmet, a full set of knights' armor of German gunsmiths of XVI century and a half, hundreds of prints and large quantity of no value to the Museum of Porcelain (gala dinner sets "Paris" "Orel", "Maltykovsky"), paintings Y. Robert, A. Watteau. JB Greuze, L. Lagrenee, F. Lemoine, Lorrain, J., F. Wang Mirisa, G. Berkheyde, A. Van Ostade, G. Van Hohnhorst, M. Van Heemskerk, as well as other well-known and lesser-known painters of the XVII -XVIII centuries.

January 1931 Rembrandt, "Joseph, Potiphar's wife accused" (bought by Mellon, today attributed as the work of the workshop)
 

February 1931
Hals, "Portrait of a young man."
Rembrandt, "Girl with a whisk. (now attributed as the work of the workshop)
Rembrandt, "Portrait of a Polish nobleman.
Raphael, "Saint George and the Dragon".
Velázquez. "Portrait of Pope Innocent X» (Etude, the New York version)
Sandro Botticheli, "The Adoration of the Magi" - 838 thousand dollars
Hals, "Portrait of the Counselor" (officer).
Rebrandt, "Woman with a carnation" (attributed as the work of the workshop)
Chardin. "House of Cards", (all purchased Meloni)
    
    

April 1931:
Rembrant, "Turk" (now attributed as the work of the workshop)
Van Dyck, "Portrait of the Flemish ladies.
Perugino, Crucifixion with Mary, John, Jerome and Mary Magdalene "
Raphael, Alba Madonna ". (1 166 400 $)
Titian, Venus with a mirror. (all purchased Meloni)
    
 

May 1931:
last auction modeling, Berlin, has failed. "Adam and Eve" by Lucas Cranach, The Holy Family by Andrea del Sarto, Portrait of Trieste, "Anthony Van Dyck," Portrait Vorontsova daughter of George Romney, "Allegory of Eternity," Rubens - sold only 613 326 dollars returned to the Hermitage " Portrait of Nicolas Rokoksa "and" Portrait of Baltazariny Van Linnik "brush Van Dyck, Rembrandt, 'Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well", canvases by Poussin, Boucher, Lorena, Vigee-Lebrun, Bern, Robbery, Greuze, Bellini.
 

After the ruling Politburo:
Tiepolo, "The Banquet of Cleopatra" (Bartered and Knoedler Gallery Colaghni, now in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia)
"Triumph of Amphitrite" Poussin - Art Museum of Philadelphia (USA)
Paired portraits of "Portrait of Sir Thomas Gresham's" and "Portrait of Anne Fearnley, wife of Sir Thomas Gresham's" work of Antonio Moro (same)
Van Eyck's diptych of the Crucifixion and the Last Judgment - the New York Metropolitan Museum. More "Van Eykov" in the Hermitage is left.
"Peter's Denial" by Rembrandt - Municipal Museum of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
National Museum in Nuremberg has acquired canvas Platzer "Concert"
Cologne "Wallraff-Rihards Museum" - "Portrait of Hans Shelenberga" brush Burgmeier.
  
Other sale items in the 30-ies:
Faberge Egg
Codex Sinaiticus
Night Cafe (painting van Gogh)

This scum Mikoyan in selling more and saying:
"Buy, buy! Anyway communism will win in the world and all that again will be ours!"

The list of impressive.

Of the 71 known eggs to have survived only 62. The vast majority of them are stored in public museums. Imperial eggs is known 54: to have survived 46 pieces, made by royal order, the rest are known from the descriptions, accounts and old photographs and was considered lost. Only one of them, "St. George", was able to leave the Bolshevik Russia, together with the legitimate owner - in 1918, in the luggage of Empress Maria Feodorovna, who went through the Crimea to his homeland, Denmark. Others remained in Petrograd. Obviously, most of them disappeared in the confusion, other (24 pcs.? "), Along with other imperial jewels were moved to the new capital in the future of the Kremlin's Diamond store.

There they were kept packed until about 1930, when the sale of the common cultural heritage of Soviet Russia in search of funds, on Stalin's orders 14 of them were sold, and how to claim some costs less than 400 $. Selling process of establishing a law office under the name "Antiques". Most of them were purchased by Armand Hammer and Emmanuel Snoumenom Wareckie, British dealers Faberge.

After collection, stored in the Kremlin, the largest collection managed to collect New York magnate Forbes. It includes 11 Imperial eggs, a few scattered "surprises" from unknown or unpreserved eggs, and 4 private eggs (total 15). In February 2004, the heirs of the Forbes collection supposed to put up for auction, wherever it is probably gone by the piece, but a few days before the auction the collection has been completely bought out Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. Viktor Vekselberg is also the founder of the cultural and historical foundation "Link of Times" and in the museum exhibition, with the same name, you can see this collection in Moscow.

Results in their historical motherland, Russia, Faberge eggs, which became one of its characters, can now be seen in four places. Among them, besides the above Armory and Vekselberg collection include: Russian National Museum (a private museum in Moscow, Alexander Ivanov) and the Mineralogical Museum. Fersman Academy of Sciences, Moscow.

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Codex Sinaiticus Bible, the book Sinai (Latin: Codex Sinaiticus) - a list of the Bible in Greek, is now considered the oldest uncial parchment manuscript of the Bible.

In 1933 the Soviet government, believing Christian relic from a liability to the atheistic state, sold the entire Code of the British Museum for the 100 000 pounds. for sale was conducted under the personal order of Stalin. Money for the purchase of the British gathered for 1 day. Since 1973, the code stored in the British Library. Thus, in the present Code is divided between Leipzig (43 sheets, acquired Tischendorf in 1844) and London (the remaining 347 plates, transported them in 1859 in Russia). In St. Petersburg there were only fragments of the three sheets of the Code. In 1975 the monks of the monastery of St. Catherine discovered a secret room in which, among other manuscripts found 12 missing sheet Code, as well as 14 fragments. Although at one time the Emperor Alexander II sent to Sinai in gratitude 9 000 rubles, modern monks raised the question of the legality of the alienation of the monument Tischendorf. In their view, a German scientist, as a representative of the "pirate Archeology» XIX century, misled the abbot of the monastery. In support of their case, they refer to preserved receipt, in which the scientist promises to return the parchment to the monastery soon after their scientific publications.
In 2005, all four sheets of the owner agreed on a code that will be carried out to high-quality scanning with a view to placing the full text online. The first digital photographs were published July 24, 2008 and available to all wishing to address www.codex-sinaiticus.net. It is planned that in July 2009, the texts will be available in full.
Codex Sinaiticus was written on vellum, 38,1 see 33,7-35,6 see the text on the sheet located in the four columns of 48 lines each. Text color - pale brown.
As in most ancient manuscripts, the words of the text written without spaces, as the division uses only point at the end of sentences. There are no signs of stress and aspiration. Citations of text from the Old Testament were not written in bold text. Partitioning of ammonium and canons of Eusebius are highlighted in red, and possibly added another scribe. All text written in Greek uncial letter.

Researchers believe that over the Codex Sinaiticus worked three of the scribe (called A, B and D). In addition, it is obvious from IV century to the XII century about 9 copyists have made adjustments to the text.

It has been suggested that the Codex Sinaiticus is one of the fifty manuscripts of the Divine Scriptures, ordered about 331 AD Emperor Constantine Eusebius of Caesarea (De vita Constantini, IV, 37).

"Night Cafe". 1888
Oil on canvas. 70h89 see
Art Gallery at Yale University.
http://artinvestment.ru/news/artnews...ight_cafe.html

Cyril Syzransky, our history is, of course, abounds .... But I always thought that a tractor, and then at the same factories and tanks for all of us are not prevented. Or someone will evidence that the Bolsheviks squandered money for the paintings?
Be as objective, gentlemen!

But I gave information about the sale. There are some estimates that negotsiyam I did not give the question "Where is the money, Zin?" I did not ask.