[LCR]

When other children collected toy soldiers, George began collecting medieval anlyuminyury. At eighteen he already knew that the history of art interested him most. His entire life was marked by erudition. It is published in the Gazette of Fine Arts, became its secretary, then bought and developed it. He was issued and union catalogs Manet, Chardin, Ingres, Lancret, Moreau, Fragonard, becoming the most competent and influential expert of his time ... [/COLOR]

It was Douglas Cooper. In the article there were a fair criticism and baseless accusations. Then his father suggested that Cooper to take part in the second edition, and he agreed. He died in 1984, after analyzing the entire painting Gauguin. But when we began to watch him work, it became clear that there is a problem. The fact that Cooper was a very quarrelsome and phenomenal quarrelsome. So, he could not admit that the picture belongs to one of his enemies, may be genuine. And the enemies he has had a lot, I swear. And on such grounds, he deleted from the catalog of work, the movement of which can be traced from the artist's studio to its current owner. We had to rehabilitate illegally repressed picture ....

Activities Gallery severely affected by the crisis in 1929: [/COLOR]

Three people have bought the Hermitage Museum a large number of masterpieces. Two of them are well known: the U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and Talleyrand oil Calouste Gulbenkian.
Who was the third? Of course, my father ... It was he who arranged the deal and led all the negotiations in Leningrad. Actually my father was a homebody, but when it came to such a deal, he agreed to go to Leningrad on foot - in fact it was a deal of the century! Theoretically, such transactions are not possible: you can not buy paintings from the Louvre! The idea was born in Gorky: sell the painting and to purchase tractors. In Paris my father asked Ilya Ehrenburg, writer and future minister. He had lived long in France, and even made a small collection. He represented the Soviet side. My father went to Leningrad. He never told the details of this transaction, but I know that he bought paintings at a phenomenal sum. And some masterpieces. And its weight in gold. Actually, our company has never been stingy when it was an opportunity to purchase a masterpiece. He bought the Italian comedians Watteau, portyasayuschih Rembrandt, Rubens great for Mellon, he took the Alba Madonna, for the Gulbenkian - a masterpiece of Houdon - Venus.

Ah, the Gulbenkian! Arriving in Deauville, Gulbenkian was going to look for me at Plage, where I built sand castles - I was five years old - to kiss me. He had very big feet. In general, he was incredibly, fantastically ugly and just as fantastically clever. He loved art and considered himself not a client of my father, and his partner. My father never did he not buy, on the contrary, it Gulbenkian bought my father bought a lot. But sometimes they bought chipped. If it appeared that promise good profits, without Gulbenkian not dispense ever. He wanted to know what we buy, from whom, for how much. He wanted to enlist a spy in the enemy camp. I just checked for you! As for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, it was a big banker. He decided to create the Washington National Gallery, funded it at 100%and left her his entire collection. A collection of his was wonderful! He bought all - at Dyuvina have Knedlera, we have ... It was he who instructed our New York gallery to buy him at the Hermitage all that interested him. He had all the lists. Actually, we have them, too, were. Hermitage picture, we knew by heart. Gulbenkian, of course, too. He mentioned to my father things that he wanted to get - he flatly refused to go to the USSR, he was sure there would kill him.
: any Courtieux showed an old lady from the provincial town of Gauguin's work. After much persuasion, the lady finally agreed to entrust it to him for sale. The old lady began to worry, Courtieux nervous - after all, if she should tell her Gauguin to someone else, goodbye, commissions! - And called Vildenshtaynu:

-I squatting Tahitian Gauguin, 100h81, the signature in the right corner ...
- I wonder ... How much?
- Pyatdesyat ...
- No, let's over forty.
- Okay.
- Well, bring her Gauguin.

This ability to assess a flash picture of George Vildenshtayn owed his love for the archives. Throughout his life, he replenished his library, which had a hundred thousand images, 300 thousand books, one hundred thousand directories - it allowed him immediately to determine the composition of some Austrian collections, or calculate the cost of zapasniikov gallery in Rio de Janeiro.

One day, shortly before the Second World War, in some shabby hotel in the Drouot auction, he saw a portrait of a monk. He then remembered seen once engraved, very similar to this paper - this engraving was part of the catalog charts Watteau, compiled Julien. George Vildenshtayn instructed my staff to buy fabric.
In the evening, when he returned to racing at Longchamp racecourse, the work was on his desktop.
- And how much? - He asked.
- Four hundred and twenty.
- Damn it, 420 thousand! Expensive, though!
- No, sir, 420 francs.

Send for Julien: George was not mistaken, it was the work of Watteau - now she is in a museum in the United States.

With his characteristic generosity, he published all found materials, which were poleznyvmi many of his colleagues.

The organizers of it were André Breton and Marcel Duchamp. [/COLOR]

Good thing my grandfather saw her, he would not survive such ... Although not really a fact. Most likely, he would have laughed heartily.
Dali was the favorite of my father. You know, Dali was not mad, oh no! He was still a wily - regularly played his role on the public. The role of the madman. To support him, Dad bought his work. In a sense, he was its artistic director. That he sent Daly to Julien Levy, a famous New York Marchand contemporary art, and in 1941 he organized a Dali exhibition in New York. While Dali barely managed to make ends meet. Following an invitation from Whitney, renowned collectors and incredible snobs, Daly said at a reception in his pajamas and a goat on a leash, first cast a stone at Tiffany's display window. Here's what he thought to be seen. one four-meter), three by Titian, Poussin 12, 80 Fragonard, Watteau, seven ... As art of modernists, which passes from hand to hand more often, the gallery always has at least twenty Renoir, Pissarro fifteen, ten of Cezanne, Van Gogov, Gauguin, Seurat and Corot and Courbet 25.

George Vildenshtayn became engaged and modern painting, but always follow their tastes and do not hesitate to get rid of jobs that did not please him: for example, said that before the war, he eliminated the 250 works by Picasso (Vildenshtayn-grandson denies this version). During the Second World War Vildenshtaynov family took refuge in the south of France. In June 1940 the Vichy government deprived them of their French nationality. A large part of their paintings had been confiscated. In January 1941, they were able to leave the United States. They appointed a temporary administrator, who created a company that has taken on lease Vildenshteynov gallery with all its contents.

Daniel Vildenshtayn and his sons Alec and Guy filed for Feliciano to court for what he has slandered their father and grandfather. In 2000, the Court of Appeal found itself incompetent, but found that Feliciano had some reason to interpret this way the role of Georges Vildenshtayna during the war.
[/COLOR]

The rest did not matter. All or almost all. My father was olerzhim mystyu death and incredibly, incredibly superstitious. He knew all the signs, everything! .. Do not put shoes on the bed, someone will die. Do not place under addl Letnica. Do not wear green. Do not open an umbrella in the house. But all this - still nothing. We had something more interesting. For example, my father never to step on the black plate. Accordingly, when he returned home - and in the hall floor was paved with black and white plates - he walked only on the white board. The gallery plates were white and red, there he was still on that step. But the black plate could not come - it was a hundred percent guarantee that the house would be dead! [/SPOILER]