Russia will assert itself on the Baldin collection. The rest will pay Germany. Alya Kharchenko, Rita Rusakova //Kommersant.
12.02.05
Yesterday, Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Law in Mass Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage Anatoly Vilkov gave a press conference on the issues of restitution. The main news was the news about the return of Germany's famous Baldin collection.
The content and mood of the meeting with the catchy title "Will Russia return the displaced values" resembled a formal report. According to Anatoly Vilkov, "according to recent estimates, in Russia as a compensatory restitution stores 250 thousand from the subjects of art treasures, more than 270 thousand archival cases and 1 million 250 thousand books and publications. This is something that Russia's law on the return of displaced values are not negotiable.
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Much of that subject has already returned (see the removal). But the main news was the message Anatolia Vilkova that the Baldin collection may be returned to Germany in the second half of 2005. "Collection from the collection of the Bremen Kunsthalle Captain Baldin in 1945 had brought illegally, and to talk about the legal rights of Russia to these works of art can not" - said Mr. Vilkov.
Baldin collection consists of 362 drawing and two paintings by European masters of the XVI-XX centuries, including Titian, Rembrandt, Durer, Rubens, Delacroix, Boucher, Corot, Manet, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec. After the war the collection was stored in a workshop in Zagorsk where Baldin worked as a restorer. In 1947 was transferred to the State Museum of Architecture named Schuseva. Viktor Baldin long tried to return the collection to Germany. Statements in 1963 became director of the Museum of Architecture Baldin to Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Suslov, Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev failed. Hope for the return of the collection during his lifetime Baldin not true. In 1991 the collection was transferred to the balance of the USSR Ministry of Culture, headed by well known for his uncompromising stance towards the return of displaced valuables Nikolai Gubenko. In 1994, the state commission on restitution of cultural property has decided "to consider the possible return of the Baldin collection of the Kunsthalle Bremen in Germany to the Government. In 1999, the RF Constitutional Court ruled that the issue should be settled by the law "On Export and Import of Cultural Property. The latest scandalous twist resistance ardent advocate of the restitution of the Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoi and chairman of the Duma Committee on Culture and Tourism Nikolai Gubenko. In March 2003, before heading to Germany, the collection was exhibited to the public at the Museum of Architecture. Then, because of the intervention of Mr. Gubenko and deputies protested against the donation of collections in Germany, all collapsed again.
Noting that the transfer of the collection in 1947 in the State Museum of Architecture named Schuseva gave the USSR the right of possession, but not the disposition of property, Anatoly Vilkov concluded that "the collection should be returned to Bremen on terms that were reached by the parties during the lengthy negotiations." One of the main conditions will be 20 works, which the German side agreed to leave Russia as compensation. "As the cost of these pictures should be approximately a quarter of the entire collection", - said Anatoly Vilkov. And the whole collection, for evaluation by the auction house "Gelos" in March 2003, worth $ 23 million
The final decision on the fate of suffering pictures will be taken in the second half of the year on the Interagency Council on the displaced values.
Alya Kharchenko, Rita Rusakov
Who is satisfied Russia
Russia since 2002 granted six claims of foreign states for displaced cultural values. In particular, the Netherlands back in the territory of Russia 22 archival stock, Belgium - 40 archives, also returned to the archives of Luxembourg. Ukraine were returned to 11 fragments of frescoes Upper St Michael's Cathedral, Germany - unique stained glass church Marienkirche in Frankfurt an der Oder. Also consider the claim for the return of cultural property from Germany, Hungary, Austria, the Netherlands, USA, Poland, Britain and Greece. In particular, it has already decided to return the Rothschild dynasty, their family archive, which was in Russia with funds by the Gestapo. Consider the claim and brothers Goldschmidt from the United States at the painting of Goya, which is kept in the Pushkin Museum of Fine