Poland insists on the return of the paintings from the Pushkin Museum of Fine

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Grigory Zaslavsky

Shvydkoi: we get the money for the Bremen collection

But as long as it remains in storage ROSIZO

In early February, the Minister of Culture of Russia Mikhail Shvydkoi during talks in Berlin promised to return to Germany, the so-called "Baldin collection" - part of the collection of the Bremen Kunsthalle. Exactly one month later, the chairman of the Duma Committee on Culture and Tourism Nikolai Gubenko gave a sharp condemnation of gratuitous transfer of cultural property. The confrontation reached its climax, and when she and the other party appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office. Yesterday in "NG" their point of view expressed Nicholas
Gubenko.

Today we publish an interview with the Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoi.

- Fradkov, tell me, what is your relationship to the current developments around "the Baldin collection"?

- I am very pleased that events unfold as they unfold. This indicates that there is no conflict between the branches of government, various state institutions and society.

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Even in such sensitive matters as the problems associated with the consequences of World War II in culture. For me, it is important that today, this discussion reveals that the public interest to ensure that all acts committed in accordance with law and international treaties of Russia.

It is highly disadvantageous think a tantrum, which frustrated some participants, because it prevents a truth. For me as a bureaucrat, it is important that all was done according to the law, and in that sense I am extremely pleased and that the problem Baldin collection discussed in the Duma, and what steps the Ministry is studying the prosecutor's office, and that the situation is under the supervision of the President. Once again I want to emphasize, there are no parties to the conflict, the more opponents. Opponents have remained on the fields of the Second World War. All the controversy and debate that goes around "the Baldin collection" and around displaced values, it seems fruitful for the present and future.

- You are sincerely glad to see this?

- Of course, it is important to only one circumstance. The controversy must be fair. The debate should not be misleading nor society, nor the Parliament nor the executive branch nor the media nor the first president. Nikolai Gubenko thrice misled all participants in the discussion: it is misleading and the president, and his colleagues in the parliament. The first time he insisted that the Baldin collection is part of the museum's array, which should be governed by the Law On Displaced values. This, in fact, built to address the parliament to the president. The second time, when Mr. Gubenko reported to the president of a protocol of intent in 1993, which not only has not lost its strength due to the emergence of new laws including the Law on Displaced values ", but intended to return to the Bremen collection of unfavorable conditions, Russia . And, finally, the last - when tried to convince the public that legislators and the performers must work together to implement the laws. This is contrary to the constitutional separation of powers. I do not know for what reasons, performed all these actions, Mr. Gubenko, but also to work constructively on the Baldin collection to a man like me and my colleagues in the ministry is very difficult. On behalf of the president, I met with Mr Gubenko, but the essence of order was that it was necessary to hold consultations with factions of the Duma, to find consensus on this issue. What I, in fact, engaged in recent days. Naturally, the "United Russia", representing the parliamentary majority, in this case seems to me the most constructive partner in the negotiations with the Duma. Although I have had conversations with the leadership of the ATP and we are preparing documents for circulation to the leaders of all factions, including the Communist Party.

Grievances Mr. Gubenko the way he was met at the Ministry - as we found it absolutely in ethics, which, let's say, than on parliamentary goodwill and tolerance, "- seem to me more than strange. Everyone knows that we have known since 1965, but to be on "you" with a man who during the week of reproach in all media, even for me, a man of peace-loving and ready for a variety of compromises, a highly difficult. I have not said yet that Mr. Gubenko sent a letter to Prosecutor General's Office about the activities of the Ministry of Culture in general and the minister himself, but for this I am grateful to him only because I also treated with similar requests. True, not in the form samodonosa, and through the press and the relevant authorities.

- How do you comment on that, by the way, submission, signed by Deputy Attorney General?

- Because the prosecutor's office sent its opinion by marking it marked "For Official Use Only", I, as a bureaucrat, I can not publish it. I can only say that the statements of Mr. Gubenko, in my view, premature, and the Ministry of Culture in response to the submission of the Attorney-General will address a letter in which we ask to clarify some of the positions reporting, because we did nothing that would violate Russia's law . I am deeply convinced. On Wednesday I met with representatives of the faction "United Russia" and hope that this faction and its leaders will help us in a dialogue with the German side, and with the State Duma, and with the public. I believe that we can get for Bremen collection twice as much as that on which insists Nikolai Gubenko. And the preliminary agreement is quite convince me of this.

- How do you think ...

- No, I would like to comment on some more recent statements by Nikolai Nikolaevich. Now my shamelessness. The memory of my brothers and sisters, which burned in the 41-th year, the memory of dozens of relatives who fought and died on the battlefield, my father, crippled at Stalingrad, did not allow me to never forget what happened in our country during the war . I never even talked to anyone at all, because it did not consider it necessary, they say, show the wound. But I'm no worse than Mr. Gubenko know why the Germans came to my land. But apparently, I am more than Gubenko, respect for modern Russia, because I firmly know that we have entered into the civilized world and must live by civilized rules. And should not enjoy the fact that we rightfully belongs. I - an official at the service of Russia and the state will act in the interests Rossiyskogo state and its laws. To Rossiyskogo States - observe good neighborly relations with its partners, especially in such difficult historical moments, like today, when Russia and Germany stand together against the war in Iraq. But I will not break any law of Russia in order to please someone outside my country. I am confident that justice and right will prevail.

- It is known that "Baldin collection" is not part of the state assembly. Yet. Do not spoil it, after the current decision of the General Prosecutor's Office, the de facto ban the export of collections, with the official Berlin?

- I do not think that they spoil fundamentally. But for me there is much that we do not follow international laws, while the German partner, they should. I am not talking about what the price return, I say that we return the belongings of Russian descent, on demand and at a time when they are identified as a Russian thing. Naturally, this left its mark on relations with Berlin. But this is not the business of my agency.

- Since the exhibition of drawings in Bremen, scheduled to open on March 29, the collection was in these very days to go across the border ...

- I warned colleagues that this does not happen, because I do not want to violate the law.

- What would be the way forward "Baldin collection"? Back to the Hermitage? Back to the Museum of Architecture?

- The collection will be stored in ROSIZO, there is the normal state repository, otherwise not required. Just want to see: a collection of drawings - not a toy, such figures could ever exhibited only two months of the year. Therefore, opens and closes the box, we will not.

- Are not you afraid of prosecution? I mean personal - say, for exceeding their authority?

- You see, I am a normal person. All are afraid of something, including criminal prosecution. But in order to bring criminal charges against me, to prove that I broke.

Published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 20.03.2003
Source: http://www.ng.ru/culture/2003-03-20/1_shvydkoi.html

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Viktor Baldin. Biography

Born March 1, 1920 in the village Mitinskaya Moscow region in a family of rural teachers. Graduated from Moscow Architectural Institute (1941). Candidate architecture (1972). Distinguished architect of Russia (1976). Winner of the European Prize for the preservation of ancient monuments (1992). Honorary Citizen of Sergiev Posad (1992). Honorary member of the Russia Academy of Architecture and Building Science (1994). Member of the Great Patriotic War.

Another student at the Institute of Architecture in 1938, V. Baldin involved in the restoration of monuments of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and it became his subsequent life.

In 1941, the outbreak of war after taking part in emergency disguise golden domes of churches Laura and evacuation artistic treasures of the museum was called the Military Engineering Academy Kyibyshev, graduated from an accelerated rate, and as an officer of the engineering troops participated in the battles of Kursk Bulge to the storming of Berlin and meeting with the Allied troops on the river Elbe.

In December 1945, discharged from the army to continue work on the restoration of the Trinity-St.

From 1946 to 1950 worked as artistic director Zagorskogo vocational school of restorers-builders. School has prepared over two hundred graduates for restoration workshops, created at the time of the ancient Russian cities, many stayed to work in Sergiev Posad.

Since 1950, V. Baldin continued to work on the restoration of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra has as a principal architect of the project of the Central scientific restoration workshops of the Academy of Architecture of the USSR. Based on a comprehensive survey of ancient buildings and study archival material he performed an analysis of historical and architectural ensemble of the formation of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, has developed a comprehensive restoration project. When the monuments of later accretions to a large extent restored the original beauty of the ensemble of the monastery. Materials research and the results of the restoration work included in a number of fundamental publications and textbooks on the history of architecture.

In 1963 V. Baldin was appointed director of the Research Museum of Architecture im.Schuseva in Moscow and was in that position for 25 years until his retirement in 1987. Simultaneously, he continued to conduct supervision and scientific guidance on the implementation of their projects restoration of the ancient buildings of the monastery. Many years of research and creative activity of V. Baldin contributed significantly to reveal the true beauty of this outstanding ensemble of ancient architecture, which incorporated in 1993 in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

B. Baldin author of many books and publications on the history of the Trinity-Sergius monastery, methods of restoration and protection of monuments of architecture.

Distinguished architect of Russia V. Baldin died Jan. 4, 1997 after a long illness of the heart.

  Yu Sivakova - Widow B. Baldin
September 1999

[Тютчев]

Grigory Zaslavsky
 
Russia - Germany - Baldin - Collection

"Baldin collection": an exhibition to be held in any weather

"RUSSIA - GERMANY - BALDIN - COLLECTION - announce the news what happened in the month of March a lot. The captain of artillery and an architect by profession Viktor Baldin, probably, and could not have imagined that someday his name will do so now "senior" context. And maybe that is what he hoped, when a year had sent their first treatment Brezhnev, Suslov, then, Ligachev, Gorbachev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and each requested during the next Summit to transmit pictures of the GDR or the FRG, which was rescued from imminent death at the end of the war.

Today the future transfer to the Bremen Museum of so-called Baldin collection "does not argue otherwise how will the performance front. From 13 to 29 March the tone and direction of thought very Russian statesmen have undergone major changes. Changed and the route the collection itself. First, because of the St. Petersburg 362 drawing and two paintings in Moscow were supposed to go to Bremen. The show was already scheduled for March 29. Then, after the speech Nikolai Gubenko and State Duma deputies who voted against the donation of collections in Germany, packed boxes stayed in the vault of the Ministry of Culture. And then decided not to postpone the date of the exhibition, but the very exhibition to be held in the Museum of Architecture, where the drawings were transferred Viktor Baldin in 1947 and where they were kept secret until 1991.

In the end, satisfied with everything. And even the German side did not make any criticism of the current situation of the collection and change themselves, and the opening of the exhibition was to be found the whole delegation from the Embassy of Germany in Moscow. And without exception, they say, if it is such a turn of events is the most desirable: and Mikhail Shvydkoi, and Nikolai Gubenko (although the mutual insults and remained unresolved). And the director of the Museum of Architecture, David Sarkisian, who a week ago announced its intention to ask for a "dignified compensation" for decades, collections storage: the need to transfer the museum under the management of the Ministry of Culture (now he is in charge of State Construction Committee) at the opening ceremony, Minister of Culture spoke very clearly and presumably, he will decide this question in the near future. Satisfied and the audience.

Would like to think that the incident will cause Baldin collection and the German side to change the current hard-edged rhetoric. And, more importantly, increase, I apologize for some sloppy style, the cost of treatment to the return of displaced values, which differs in recent years, Russia's position. During this culture minister could say thank you to the head of the division of the State Duma, the more so in the present scenario, their public statements have not quite distinguishable from one another.

Published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 01.04.2003
Source: http://www.ng.ru/accent/2003-04-01/7_baldin.html

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They say the children of Captain Baldin

The unknown details of the Bremen collection
 
All interested parties have already managed to speak to the history associated with the return (or - return) to Germany, the so-called Baldin collection ", ie drawings from the collection of the Bremen Kunsthalle, rescued at the end of the war, artillery captain, Viktor Baldin. All - but not all.
Recently Received "NG" children came Viktor Baldin, Vera and Alexander, who attended and the opening of the exhibition of drawings at the Museum of Architecture. Then, at the opening of the family stood widow Baldin, Julia Feodorovna Sivakov. However, Vera and Alexander told us that Julia Sivakova - the second wife of Viktor Baldin (first wife, their mother, thank God, too, is alive, but the interview does not). Baldin's first letter to the leadership of the Soviet Union with a proposal to return the drawings appeared shortly after the conclusion of a new marriage. Before Viktor Baldin said only that moved the pictures to convey them to their state. He told Baldin children and how summoned him to his end of the 1940 Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria. Questioned in detail about the collection, and when he learned that the drawings have already been transferred to the Museum of Architecture, shouted at Baldin: "Fool!" Get out! "
The necessity of returning the collection to Germany, Baldin's widow Julia Sivakova continues to speak today, after the death of Viktor Ivanovich. Today is the first time his point of view expressed Children Viktor Baldin.

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Recently, in our press, radio and television is, in our opinion, very partisan campaign around the collection of drawings from the Bremen, which saved during the war and preserve our father, Viktor Baldin. For a long time, we silently watched the developments, but the last transfer, especially on the channel "Russia" ( "Mirror" Nikolai Svanidze), lead us through the press to speak out against the use of the name of our father in the tendentious imposition of views on the transfer of the collection to Germany.

Yes, indeed, during the war, as an officer in the Soviet army, our father accidentally stumbled on a collection of drawings in a German castle. As an architect, he immediately realized the value of this collection, and did everything to save her. (It should be noted that his father wrote poetry and drew well. In war time, he kept a whole portrait gallery of his fellow soldiers, which he painted during the hours of respite.) He turned to his military superiors for help in the removal of this collection. However, it refused him. So my father had at his own risk to do the very salvation of this collection.

And save a collection of really had. Many drawings have walked through the hands of our soldiers. In some drawings, which lay under their feet, were already signs of soldiers' boots. A short time images could disappear without a trace. And he did everything to gather all the pictures. He loved to recall how he traded a painting by Durer for a pair of chrome officer's boots.

By bringing Bremen collection of drawings in the USSR, his father did much to make it (more precisely, the portion which fell into his hands, because there are other parts of this collection, whose fate is not mentioned. And why not?) Has been retained as whole. Images were cleaned of dirt. My father made a full inventory of all drawings. Moreover, he invited a professional photographer, and they took pictures of all the pictures.

In the preservation of images taken part and our mother, Antonina, held the Finnish and the Great Patriotic War. Parents of many risky at the time, doing this work.

My father never believed that collection - his personal property. He always believed that the drawings of this level - and in the collection are sheets of Durer, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Rubens, Monet, Degas and other famous masters - must belong to mankind. Therefore, when the collection has been described (which is not possible to further divide it into separate parts, which could vanish into thin air), the father shortly after the war gave it to be deposited in the Museum Schuseva Academician of Russian architecture in Moscow.

When Beria learned about the collection, it was too late - she was in the hands of academician Schuseva. To touch the author of Lenin's Tomb Beria dared. Therefore, he limited himself to one single conversation with his father and, apparently, very sorry that the collection was not included in his hands. But all could have ended very differently, and for our parents, who risked their lives, and for the Bremen collection. (Julia Feodorovna Sivakov, which now gives a lot of different interview about the Bremen collection - the second wife of Viktor Ivanovich, she married him in mid-1960's, and to preserve and transfer their drawings to the State is irrelevant.)

Thanks to these measures, the collection is really without any loss of preserved until our time. It should be noted that the fates decree father himself was in the middle of 1960 the director of the Museum of Russian architecture, and the collection was again in his hands. And again he did everything to save her, and not one leaf collection is not gone, as they say, for "commercial" channels in private hands, although such proposals were met.

Father his entire life doing everything possible to preserve the collection. He always believed that the collection of this level - this is the province of all mankind and should determine the fate of the state. That's why he turned on the collection to his command, and being refused, later himself, on his own initiative, had brought her and gave free state.

Father had done his job - a collection of preserved and even became available to the public. Now it is up to the state. That it must define its exact position on the issue of this collection. And not only about her. This is a purely political question, and here must take into account the interests of the state.

At one time the Soviet Union returned the GDR Dresden Gallery. It was a political move aimed at building confidence between countries. This was the position of the state. U.S. taken from the post-war Germany, a lot of values. They are stored in the U.S., no one is transmitted and generally not disclosed. This position of the state.

With respect to the collection of the Bremen drawings, our Russia's state should also take a clear and unambiguous position.

We are not talking about how it should be returned to Germany or not. These issues should resolve a State which transmitted images of the Bremen collection, and it should extract the maximum benefit from this, because the state is responsible for all of us.

The clear position of the State should be raised and on the other values that are stored with us. How, for example, the issue will be resolved with other parts of the Bremen collection, which now no one speaks, but which are also in Russia?

Unfortunately, our media is often biased, without a thorough study presented with screens and newspaper pages the question of the Bremen collection. Considered and heavily promoted on many television channels, only one point of view, protecting the interests of Germany, not Russia. And example of this - the last channel "Mirror" Nikolai Svanidze.

Unfortunately, the name of Viktor Ivanovich Baldin used in order to satisfy the interests of individuals under the guise of a noble deed, which he has committed. The name of our father should be mentioned only once and in this context: "These pictures were saved during the war and preserved for mankind Russian officer Baldin, VI, regardless of where the collection will be in the future. Such a memory he deserved.

The question of collection must solve our state and our president.

V. Baldin,
AV Baldin
April 9, 2003

Published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 18.04.2003
Source: http://www.ng.ru/saturday/2003-04-18/15_baldin.html

[Тютчев]

Stanislav Safonov
 
Lessons of History "Baldin collection"

Once again on the trophy cultural values
 
On the issue of captured values expressed without exception media. The reason for slovoizyavleniya served as a story with graphics, Viktor Baldin exported from Germany in 1945. Wrote about it all the media until mid-year, and then fell silent, as if, in the words of Mayakovsky, in the mouth of dollars they took ... Interest in the problem flared up again on the occasion of the appearance on the international antique market paintings Peter Paul Rubens' Tarquin and Lucretia.

The subject of bargaining - a picture of a popular subject in the past from ancient Roman history, "disgraced Lucretia." Canvas area of six square. m written by Peter Paul Rubens between 1609 and 1612 years., the work of subscription (the signature was discovered during the restoration). Attribution pictures confirmed by specialists of the GoE and German from the gallery of Potsdam. By the time the restoration of the canvas was folded several times, and at the joints is visible scree paint layer. The quality of restoration is unknown.

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Provenance picture. Until 1942 he was in a meeting of the palace Sanssouci in Potsdam. In the list of exported values in the Soviet Union did not appear. In 1945 he was in the house of his mistress propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. In 1945, the house occupies a Soviet commandant of Brandenburg, and later, after the end of his service, as it was then taken, along with the picture of the situation was brought to Russia. For the convenience of carriage cloth was folded several times and as such lay there till our days. The daughter of an officer to sell the painting for 800 dollars. Now the picture is owned by businessman and collector of icons, Vladimir Logvinenko, and to address the issue of the status of pictures placed in the repository ROSIZO.

Assessment paintings. Name a few sums: 95/80 million, 80 million euros. According to experts, the amount is overstated, as the now-antique market there is no rush for Rubens. The painting was offered to the German museums for $ 30 million, according to other sources, for a quarter of the amount of the assessment. To pay for her German side refused.

This scene of rape can be attributed to the strange war booty in 1945. Surprisingly, then in each duffel bag, "Sidor" soldiers and officers who were returning from Germany, was a place for erotic postcards, magazines, albums with nudity, figurines, golyshek etc. It seems already manifested deficits sex in Soviet Russia.

Return to the lessons of the controversy around the "collection" Baldin. Highlight four different positions, four approaches to the problem.

Position of the first, let's call them patriots, clear and understandable. They remember or have heard from the parents of that terrible war: the gallows in almost every village or village, ditches, clogged with corpses, every city and from Moscow to Brest, there is no place where there were no ruins and ashes. " Their position is marked Captions S. Raskin, 1943.: "We will never forget!

Position Second, advocates of universal values, or how they are still referred to as "Westerners", more complicated and difficult. They need to help the German side and persuade the electorate that "by the global rules captured values are subject to the unconditional return" of Germany (like writing one of the Moscow newspapers on April 1 this year). They are intricately transferred to equalize the scourge of war, and our German side, as well as damage caused by our German and cultural values.

That's what writing two ladies of the Komsomol newspaper after a meeting with the second wife of V. Baldin: "After the victory of antique linens and shepherds of the great masters literally filled Moscow's commission store. Baldin friend sold four drawings from the Bremen series in the Pushkin Museum, has received forty thousand rubles, and noted successful deal of joy in Prague. "Why this curious information? Julia Feodorovna Baldin was then in places far from Moscow. Probably the Komsomol and the ladies do not know that in 1945 in Moscow there were only four commission store, where we took antiques, and they physically could not be literally filled with paintings of great masters. "In other" stores random things "traded" trophies "in the current range of Vietnamese and Chinese markets, and antiques can get on their shelves only at the ignorance of a commodity specialist. Restaurant" Prague "was opened ten years after the victory - in 1955, and the Pushkin Museum until 1956 he worked intermittently on the "Stalinist" and "Dresden" exhibition.

Another "Komsomolskaya" lady, holding our own inventory and the German losses, concludes: "Nevertheless, the cultural loss of global significance such as" Sistine Madonna "we have not suffered.

Even if we counted distract from human material losses, the Germans should we still have a scorched earth. The invaders smashed and burned down the historical and cultural layers in the west of Russia "the mainland" as they say archaeologists. Now there remains a city without a past. They are from the past were the old names and the history book without a real environment. It could not be. Of the 1418 days of war on our territory, it was raging 1000 days, and on the German held for 100 days. Modern German historian, wrote that Germany did not pay a tenth of what was happening in the occupied territories.

Position of the German side: "Give, and no nails!" We explain: "In West Germany there is no cultural values of Russia." This is true with a trace of guile. The Germans know where we went and swam away, and German cultural treasures after the war, but whether from a sense of Atlantic solidarity, or for other reasons, hesitate to demand their return. Americans also have been slow to follow the "global rules". But now with a weakened Russia could claim only that the soul desires.

In 1945, Germany was divided into four occupation zones. In the Soviet zone of Germany came third part, the rest was occupied by the Western allies. Germany began the export of material and cultural values in order reparations, seizures, confiscations, as well as individual initiatives. Our soldiers were interested in only "convenience goods": bicycles, radios, cameras ... Enterprising and clever Americans worried "eternal values". Over the ocean sailed most of these eternal values. Enough to look through our newspapers from 1947 to 1950

Position of the ministry's officials: "To give everything, but subject to the visibility - all under the law." To facilitate the transfer of "the Baldin collection to the German side, eccentric V. Baldin designated looter - he de smuggled collection from Germany (it would be better left lists of soldiers on cigarettes or other use of paper, and not give them their rations and chrome officers' boots ).

Officials warmly welcome any humble offerings to the German side, symbolizing that mimic or simulate a counter-process of the return values. Last year, officials in each ministry's statement, "rinsed" chest of drawers and panels from the Tsarskoe Selo palace, supplied to us by the Germans. This enthusiasm for a copy of the Amber Room, paid the German side, it is the turn to enjoy building up the church of the Assumption in Volotovo field near Novgorod. And in August, despite the ridicule the media, Minister of Culture admired second-tier graphics, came from Germany.

The fifth character, the electorate, yet silent. Russian question: "What?" Answer: "Do nothing and wait." In the mid 1950's. U.S. experts examined the question of what to do, that dried up the hatred of Armenians by the Turks for the massacre of 1915-1916 gg. Conclusion scientists - this happens when he dies last witness the carnage. Historical experience has shown that this term is not enough. Shall die, those who heard first hand about those terrible events. We think it will happen by 2020. By this time, come to power another generation, and it decides how to proceed with the trophy property in 1945.

Published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta on 31.10.2003
Source: http://www.ng.ru/antiquare/2003-10-31/22_baldin.html

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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

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Culture Shock

  
      As it became known Itogi, Russia's Culture Ministry officials and their Germanic counterparts during confidential negotiations signed a very curious document. This is a working protocol, which approved the scheme of transfer of the German side of the notorious Baldin collection, taken out after World War II from Germany to the USSR. Although it would be better to speak not about transfer, and sales. More than three hundred pictures, painted by Rembrandt, Rubens, Degas, Van Dyck and other eminent artists, decided to "exchange" of two dozen works that remain in Russia, and the modest two million dollars. The money will be spent on restoration work in Novgorod and Pskov.

Return of the collection will be executed no special federal law, but only by the Minister of Culture. The reasoning is as follows: property found illegally imported into our territory, and therefore its return additional legislative confirmation is required. There is no doubt that this scheme is the transmission of cultural values will cause at least a scandal among the patriotic public, as well as the maximum - will create a serious precedent.

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Symbolic cashing

Baldin collection - is a kind of symbol to address all trophy art found in the territory of our country after the Second World War. For many years, this story can be difficult relations between Russia and Germany. But today, it seems, in the history of restitution written a new page. During a recent visit to Austria President noted that the issue of displaced valuables (Vienna is seeking the return of the library and collection of the princes Esterházy ancient Persian manuscripts) may soon be lifted. Voluntary and almost gratuitous return of cultural property in a certain scenario, an asset Russia a good service in addressing the backlog of international problems. Some sources in the Ministry of Culture, in general, hinted that the moderate position of Angela Merkel at the Samara Summit EU - Russia was due to including a breakthrough in the history of the Baldin collection.

Subject Russo-Germanic restitution traditionally seen us through the "Baldin" prism. After all, the scandal surrounding the failed return of the collection four years ago, seemingly forever put an end to all restorative topics. Now turn 180 degrees ...

Recall that in 2003 our government and the public differed in assessing the amount of compensation for Germany's return to its cultural heritage. The then Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoi believed that the Baldin collection should give a gift, but as payment for its carefully preserved, you can ask the Germans to leave us a couple of dozen rarities from 364 items. However, many felt that the minister "bad bargain" and too easy to agree with the requirements of the Germanic side. In particular, one of the most ferocious critics Shvydkoy, State Duma deputy Nikolai Gubenko, in a letter addressed to Vladimir Putin insisted on the need to obtain "the greatest benefit for Russia." This message is supported by Nikita Mikhalkov. How to refuse such distinguished people? As a result, the decision of the Ministry of Culture on the removal of rarities in the FRG was disavowed, Shvydkoi soon left the ministerial post and was replaced, as it is now fashionable to say, "patriotic" Alexander Sokolov. Why now, with the Baldin collection received "unpatriotic": after fourteen years of mutual bickering parties agreed that the rarities have already this year to return to their historic homeland - in Bremen, with virtually nothing. Russia cultural community is angry and will again, as claimed by the opponents of restitution, to help President Putin has strengthened the confidence that the collection of legally the property of Russia.

Baldin Group

At one time, in an interview with Itogi, Alexander Sokolov, argued: "There will transfer the Baldin collection to the German side now ... is not already set up a special working group to resolve the" Baldin themes, and gradually emerging balanced position on both sides. " What is weighed unspecified. But soon the Minister suddenly asked journalists in general, "derived from the use of" a term such as "restitution". And if they use it, the only exclusively with the adjective "compensatory". What else observers think? Logic loomed unequivocal: the Germans have to pay for exported from Germany, art.

Everything would be fine, but the problem is that the Baldin collection does not fall under the restitution legislation. Its legal status is governed by the law on import and export of cultural property. She was "expropriated" by the Soviet officer Baldin in private, and therefore sacrosanct "state trophy" can not. The tenth article of the law on import-export, in particular, states: "In accordance with international treaties and laws of Russia Russia cultural property illegally exported from its territory and illegally imported into its territory be returned. On the "compensatory restitution" in the law no syllable.

Nikolai Gubenko always been opposed to the return of the Baldin collection of Germany. In 2003, he launched a media campaign, which prevented the then Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoi come to terms with the German side.

Incidentally, in 2000, part of the Bremen collection (Figure 101), exported to the USSR comrade Baldin - Balakin officer, was returned to Germany just under the Act and with the approval of President Vladimir Putin. First pictures of the Embassy of Germany has brought himself Balakin, and then allowed to take the collection to Germany on the basis of the evidence of the Ministry of Culture of Russia. This document is Germany's Culture Minister Michael Naumann personally handed Mikhail Shvydkoi. Logically, then decide the fate of the remainder of the Baldin collection had to be within the same legal scheme. But the Ministry of Culture has Solomonic solution. Why?

Last fall, the decision of the Minister of Sokolova in the "Baldin" working group of the Interagency Council on the displaced values had been included well-known restorer Sawa Yamshchikov. He was a longtime associate of Nikolai Gubenko against "beskompensatornoy" restitution. Why was it suggested his candidacy? A source at the Ministry of Culture, commented on the appointment of Comrade Saahova Yamshchikova words of "The Caucasian Captive": "Anyone who hinders us, that we will help."

The fact that the veteran restorer found a fresh solution Baldin problem: "Why do we need these things (from the collection. -" Results ") ... I need now is more important that we receive money for monuments that are in a catastrophic state in Novgorod, Pskov. Incidentally, Yamshchikov conducted the first negotiations on the Baldin collection back in 1993, and it was he who first managed to persuade the Germans to the first cash payments for future restitution. During the 1993-1999 period, Germany to fork out 300 thousand dollars, Russia inherited the restorers. Once the Germans were paying then, why do not they pay now?

The first meeting of the working group last fall began with a sensation. It was announced following the initial position: if Baldin, in 1948, voluntarily handed over the collection in gosmuzey, it is clearly a property of the state. I agree with the Germans on the extradition of the collection should be "similar to the displaced values." In other words, works of art illegally exported (and quite simply, stolen) simultaneously become state property. And for any disposition of property, of course, have to pay compensation.

Colleagues Sawa Yamshchikova hurry in Pskov and Novgorod, make an estimate of restoration work to invoice the Germans. In an interview, Sava V. stressed that they should pay us for not ruined during the war (all of which are restored under Stalin and Khrushchev), but for the fact that collapsed in the stagnant-perestroika years. But, apparently, the leadership of Ministry of Culture, hinted that in such a creative approach to its own laws can be three sheets to quarrel with our main economic partner in Europe. The position had to be mitigated. Ministry of Culture, had to accept the fact that Baldin from the "savior of the collection" was formally demoted "to the looters." And then began a desperate bargain. Some members of the working group talked about the millions of dollars on two others, restorers and other members of the public less than 28 million do not agree. February 26 in a rather emotional letter to the Minister of Culture Yamshchikov criticized the outcome of the Russia-Germany Working Group. Pathos message - in Russia's side is absolutely no ability to bargain. They say, instead urge the government of Germany "acceptable means" we agree to compensation in the form of 20 masterpieces from the collection, and two million dollars. But could keep the 10 drawings, but to achieve even 26 million.

Wrangling could last indefinitely. But at the end of March, Alexander Sokolov received a carte blanche: the collection returned to Germany under the law on import and export of cultural property. Germany, however, solely as a gesture of goodwill, and not just any compensation, give Russia 20 drawings, and restorers - two million dollars. Given that the Germans pay formally should not have, who will now say that Russia can not defend its national interests?

In order to swim in restitution more

"The Germans behave as if they were we won the war" - one fumed Russian participants of the latter, the May round of talks. If you listen to this man, could have the impression that the war and does not end there. The fact that negotiations have cost without the ugly scenes - merit Deputy Minister of Culture Leonid Nadirov, who represented to them the government of Russia. However, if only to wave his fists after the fight still happens. The next week is scheduled a press conference on the transfer of the Baldin collection. One of the participants of the event assured the "Results", that "little nobody seems.

Of course, expect to repeat the success in 2003 the opponents of "cheap" restitution is hardly worth it. The Kremlin will take the situation under control. Duma will say nothing. TV does not show. The collection will give. And with accusatory pathos in our patriotic public not so good today. Try to explain to the public why other people's cultural heritage to trade for the 28 million possible, but for two - criminal. Where is the logic of Sovereignty?

Whatever it was, but the return of the Baldin collection - a significant event. In the West, for such "signals" lends an attentive ear. Because each step - this is a precedent. So, followed by other steps in the same spirit. I want to believe that the thoughtful and civilized. Vladimir Putin in Austria, in any case, promised to move forward toward the restitution ...



incisions: MORE

Goya is

Baldin collection of paintings and drawings, consisting of 364 works of XV-XIX centuries, before the Second World War was part of a huge collection of the museum Kunsthalle Bremen. During the war it was evacuated in one of the Brandenburg castle, where she was accidentally discovered by Soviet soldiers. International Collection. The book contains works by Italian masters - 84 sheet (Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Veronese, Cavallini, Giotto, Tintoretto, and others), French - 23 sheet (David Delacroix, Rodin, Greuze), about 30 drawings by Durer, medieval works from the Netherlands, England and Austria.

After intense negotiations, the German side agreed to keep Russia in the twenty of the 364 works. Know the name and authorship of six of them. This "View of the Church of St. Johann in Nuremberg, Albrecht Durer," Sofonizba drank poison from a glass of "Rembrandt's sketch for the painting" The Last Court "by Paolo Veronese, The Crucifixion of St. Peter Van Dyck," the young man's head in profile "Pontormo, sketch paintings by Francisco Goya.

In 2003, Russia's auction house "Gelos" praised the entire collection of 23.5 million dollars. 20 rarities, which can remain in Russia, worth about $ 6 million, including 4.6 million estimated the work of Goya.


incisions: OPINION

"Only begin to give"

The questions of "Itogi" The Deputy Chairman of the Duma committee on international affairs Natalia Narochnitskaya (fraction "Fair Russia").

- Natalia, how do you feel about the decision to return to Germany the Baldin collection?

- I am outraged by this and think that there are no legal grounds to issue no. This is all the wiles of our officials, who do not know the reasons and circumstances have embarked on this position.

- Vladimir Putin promised that Russia will continue to move toward restitution. Baldin collection - it is really not the case?

- I believe that the president had made a fairly general statement.

- Why do you think that the issue of the Baldin collection harm the interests of the country?

- This is fundamentally the wrong decision. Only begin to give. To us will fall claim. There is the notion of precedent.

- But there are laws and in accordance with which we did, that create these precedents. Hungary recently gave Sarospatak library.

- So what? I voted against the bill.

Denis Babichenko
"Results", № 23 (573), June 4, 2007

http://www.itogi.ru/archive/2007/23/21219.html
http://www.narochnitskaia.ru/cgi-bin...0r070614072310

[Wladzislaw]

Сообщение от NEO

I totally agree!
Polyakov ever since reading Gorky can not stand (although then no one living, as indeed dead Pole) is not seen.
What is the impact of the Russian writer it! A?

The writers here at anything, it's a psychiatric problem.

[Тютчев]

Сообщение от VYACHESLAV

This legal casuistry, and when the proceedings will be again raised the partition of Poland in 1939 godu.V ultimately paintings will be returned Polshe.Stranno why the Russians would not raise such questions.

Everything depends on political will. I also understand the silence of our state. We just have all the rights, and thus the prospects to return the stolen during the Great Patriotic War.

[uriart]

Сообщение от Tjutchev

We just have all the rights, and thus the prospects to return the stolen during the Great Patriotic War.

What are the prospects?
Who will return us to that?
You are so naive to think?
I'm surprised.