Page from the catalog of the Tretyakov Gallery , which transferred to the museum published works from the collection Gorshina .
Photo : Maria Moskvicheva
Abandoned trophy
So, the picture of the wanted the Ministry of Culture ( published on the site office appropriate list ) , the last quarter century rests in the Tretyakov Gallery . Stumbled on this discovery , of course, not a random person , and one of the leaders of fakes and catalogs of works on the wanted list , Vladimir Roschin .
- This is a great success ! Event ! Sure , the picture is better to return to Tver. There she will be on permanent display , and not collecting dust in the vaults of THG ! - He assured "MK" , which first reported the find .
In Tver gallery glad the news . Together with the head . scientific and exhibition department Vladimir Biberinym we tried to trace the fate of the picture, given the fact that published in the catalog of the Tretyakov Gallery , the blade is received in the Metropolitan Museum as a gift from Professor Sergei Gorshina .
Professor Sergei Gorshin ( portrait by Vladimir Igoshev ) .
Photo : Maria Moskvicheva
Help "MK" : Sergey Gorshin - Candidate Forest Sciences . In 1932 he moved to Moscow , where he worked at the Institute of forest crops , and later - in the laboratory in wood protection TSNIIMOD . During the war , to evacuate , to put it in the hands of German landscape painting Anton Bright - since he never stopped collecting art until his death . In 1997, Sergei died at the age of 99 years. The best part of the collection ( 60 works ) , he gave TG remaining - including work Levitan , Shishkin and Aivazovsky - Art Gallery is located in the town of Khimki , where he lived for many years after the death of her professor named after him .
- Landscape Orlovsky was kidnapped during the occupation of the city in 1941. Fortunately , we have preserved glass negative depicting the work. Apparently, the Germans took the picture , and then, during the retreat , it is dropped. I think she changed to Gorshina several owners. He could buy it in an antique shop or swap with someone.
- And as the picture was in Tver gallery?
- Orlovsky was a popular author , his works adorn many estates Tver province. We have no precise information about its origins . What we do know is the fact that the picture came to us from a regional museum in 1937, and there is likely to hit after the Revolution , when there was a nationalized property estates. Most of the old collection - it's just stuff from estates.
- Happened before such precedents ? Whether to return to your museum stolen work ?
- Yes, there were a few such situations. Some abductees returned to work after the occupation of the locals : paintings found in those houses where there were Germans , and transferred to the museum. And some work back later. So , work Venetsianov revealed in the Russian Museum and returned to Tver art gallery in the late '50s .
- Do you think that once opened , that picture of your museum - the Tretyakov Gallery , as should decide her fate ?
- This should solve museum directors and the Ministry of Culture . I wish that came back to us . Of course, if it happens , we will make a special exhibition will explore and describe the fate of the catalogs . It will be an event not only for us but also for all museums - many lost painting by the thousands, tens of thousands during the war. This story will be a glimmer of hope for them.
Tropical homeland near St. Petersburg
Before heading to the Tretyakov Gallery , fast forward to the nineteenth century .
Thais born in landscape - in the St. Petersburg area, 32 km from the Northern capital. Famous village where he lives more than three thousand people , its geysers and keys - that is still responding to its " tropical " title. And the fact that once belonged to the ancestors of Alexander Pushkin. Peter I conquered the land and bestowed great-grandfather of the poet Admiral Golovin , and then they went to Abram Hannibal ( from whom "the sun of Russian poetry" has inherited his famous curls and tireless Ethiopian blood) . In the 70 years of the XVIII century, the land bought Miners of Alexander Demidov - he built a beautiful mansion with angular balconies around the perimeter of the building . According to legend, because of his daughter, who was ill with tuberculosis , so she could admire the beauty, without leaving the house , the father planned custom home , wherever views of the entire neighborhood . Landowner idea brilliantly embodied Ivan Star - by the time the celebrated architect who built the Tauride Palace and Trinity Cathedral in the Monastery of Alexander Nevsky. Demidov evaluate all possible underground springs and have arranged a magnificent park with a network of numerous ponds, picturesque bridges , gazebos and pavilions . Over his plan worked Pozdeev engineers and Bauer .
In the nineteenth century , this idyll attracted artists and musicians. Here was chosen to open-air landscape Semen Shchedrin , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote here one of his symphonies . For years, people came Vladimir Orlovsky - Ukrainian landscape , caressed Petersburg public attention , professor, member of the Board of the Academy of Arts . For several years he wrote " Thai " motives .
It is worth noting that the " Thai " period - one of the most prolific for Orlovsky. At this time, the artist reached the pinnacle of his skill and creativity. He had already see Switzerland and Italy , Little Russia and the Caucasus, Crimea and Finland to become a welcome author on international and domestic exhibitions . Orlovsky was popular not less than Aivazovsky . No wonder that his work can be found in the most respected living Petersburg and Moscow. It is possible that as " Thais " and were in the vicinity of Tver.
But what happened next with this work ? And where she is now - in the vaults of the Tretyakov Gallery or adorns the walls of one of the halls ? For answers go to the Metropolitan Museum .
Breakthrough in biography
In the office of chief curator of the Tretyakov Gallery Tatiana Gorodkova table filled with catalogs and documents. Top of neatly folded paper booklet with a small black cover - is a catalog of the exhibition of works from the collection of Sergei Gorshina . In it, one of the last pages , we find the same landscape that is looking Tver Museum.
- Here is the first letter from Sergei Gorshina the museum ( from 25.12.1986 ) , - with the dexterity of a magician catches his neat stopochek securities Tatyana S. and reads : " ... As a great admirer of Pavel Tretyakov donor and as a collector who wants to continue the tradition of the Russian intelligentsia to give the best museums and works of art in order to serve , I bring better and more significant works from his collection to the museum . I do not put any special conditions , I ask only that the work has been shown properly . " The exhibition was held in 1989 in the large exhibition hall on the Crimean Val .
At the exhibition was shown more than two hundred works from the collection Gorshina , including five works Orlovsky , including " Thai " landscape . After the museum's experts have selected 60 of the best things , including interest to us the picture.
- Where is the picture now?
- She exhibited at the Government Reception House of the Russian Federation , in the former mansion of Arseny Morozov Vozdvizhenka . We gave her a year ago and recently extended the contract for a year. Together with her to go there for another 15 pictures. Before this long exhibition of her dressed in a gold frame and photographed with high resolution , so you can see all the details. And you know all the fact that the picture of the Tver and our museum - one and the same thing!
- Why not? Even the untrained eye can see that the details spelled the same way: ducks , trees , farm house ...
- First, there are discrepancies in the sizes: Tver work - 53 to 107 cm, and the State Tretyakov Gallery - 54.4 to 106.2 .
- Not too much difference : during the restoration could change the size , may have incorrectly measure the canvas ...
- Yes, it's a small discrepancy , but it is. It happens that in the restoration of the dimensions can vary within a centimeter , it's true. But there is a second question - the state of conservation . " Cracks in the middle of a mess , bottom paint chips . Subframe with the crossbar. Gilded frame baguette "- read the description of the Tver gallery. But the thing came to us without a breakthrough and cracks. And without inventory number Tver gallery, which puts all the rules of every museum - usually on a stretcher , oil paint.
- Gorshin could restore job subframe could be replaced . That explains why change the canvas size .
- Could , but now we list the facts. Indeed, the restorers told me that the subframe , if he was unfit , could be replaced . I asked our experts : if there was a breakthrough , after the restoration of whether it is possible to see traces of it ? I was told that you can, but sometimes it is very difficult to do . Depends on what was a breakthrough and how it was removed during the restoration , if the picture is duplicated . To determine a breakthrough in the picture or not, it is necessary to investigate . An experienced eye specialist and technology and technological expertise , where it can be X-rayed to enlighten , to answer these questions.
- Can hold such an expert ?
- Yes , but not now : we can not take a picture of the Morozov mansion until it expires , which gave the museum the work under the contract. Have to wait. And then we can talk about copyright repetition. Artists of the time often wrote the same story - take at least " Rooks " Savrasova . If you look , you can see that in the foreground ripples in the water spelled differently. All these questions will give answers examination .
Well - wait.
Slowness of the Tretyakov Gallery , you can understand that in Soviet times the museum gave regional halls hundreds of pictures of the first masters ( to each student could study classical art history "alive" and not from reproductions ) and the museum still seems to remain on the psychological trauma about . Well, in general ...
- How to dispose of the story - and ordered . If decade as the picture came to the museum, it is better to leave there. This argument from the series that was recently for Morozovskaya collection , divided between the Hermitage and the Pushkin half a century ago . It 's not handed back to the Pushkin Museum, and , in my opinion , correct. The more that are harmful for the painting movement : shaking , temperature and humidity , which occur even spetstransport could affect safety. And we are very closely monitoring our funds - concluded keeper.
Well - the question remains for the next year . Happy one : the picture is displayed on the highest level - means the name Orlovsky , much less known today than the names of his contemporaries, has not been forgotten . His vision of natural beauty and harmony is displayed in one of the most beautiful mansions capital.
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No matter how resolved this intrigue , it is far from the only one. Thousands of pictures were lost after the war - both from national museums and repositories of the countries - occupiers and of German treasuries . Only a few find their way home. In the history of the Tretyakov Gallery , for example, only one such case in Germany showed up one job , lost during the war, and after decades of German collector brought her back to Russia. True, the war is lost THG only some 33 things , and then only because they were given to exhibitions , when the Second World War (funds taken to evacuate ) . Values of many other museums are less fortunate .
National cataloging museum fund of the Russian Federation began relatively recently. The decisive impetus for it was a scandal with the theft of works from the Hermitage. After total check Petersburg treasury funds and others engaged in museums. Description funds and drawing up a single electronic catalog goes so far. Actually, compiling lists and descriptions of stolen works , thanks to which surfaced story Orlovsky - part of a major museum inventory. If in 2012 , the year of the 170th anniversary of the artist's birth , Tverskaya gallery would not publish a single image , " Thai " landscape in an article about it, you would not now read the text. So, perhaps , the discovery of stolen landscape Orlovsky (or twin ) - only the first signs of future discoveries .
material: Maria Moskvicheva
Moskovsky Komsomolets number 26409 on December 13, 2013
http://stolenart.ru/news/3/19/voennyj-detektiv-maslom