Sixteen scholars from Russia, Vienna, and the United States explore the fate of Russian art collections and libraries following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the institutions and individuals responsible for their sale, and the prominent collectors, libraries, and museums that acquired them. Unlike the widely publicized controversy surrounding Soviet-Nazi war loot and its restitution, the sales of the interwar period are not well known outside a small scholarly community. This volume reveals the extent of the Soviet government's voluntary ?realization? of Russia's cultural patrimony between 1918 and 1938 and its consequences for both the international art market and the perception of Russian art. The imperial Easter eggs by Fabergé and Old-Master paintings purchased by Andrew Mellon from the State Hermitage and now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. are the most celebrated works that changed hands. Equally significant are the bibliographic rarities from imperial libraries, icons and liturgical art from churches and monasteries, and antiques, furnishings and fine art from estates, palaces, and private homes. See the review in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/gift-guide/holiday-2009/ggantiques/list.html

Selling Russia's Treasures documents one of the great cultural dramas of the twentieth century: the sale, by a cash-hungry Soviet government, of the artistic treasures accumulated by the Russian aristocracy over the centuries and nationalized after the October 1917 revolution. An astonishing variety of objects, from icons and illuminated manuscripts to Fabergé eggs and Old Master paintings, entered the collections of wealthy Westerners like Andrew Mellon and Armand Hammer in the 1920s and 30s. Written by the leading experts in the field and long regarded as the definitive book on the subject, the original Russian edition of Selling Russia's Treasures is sought after scholars and laymen alike. Now, for the first time, it is made available in English, in a revised and expanded edition that includes a new chapter on the secret files of the Hermitage, previously considered lost, as well as new research on the sale of religious art, and of twentieth-century French masterworks from the Museum of New Western Art. Numerous color plates reunite long-dispersed works in a virtual museum that illustrates the powerful blow inflicted on Russia's cultural heritage by these secretive sales, and rare photographs and archival documents help bring this buried history to light.

Published to accompany the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Klim Rogov is a foreign journalist, and when Russia has a Bolshevik coup in 1917, he has a chance to leave the country and escape the violence of the civil war. He tries to take Nina, his fiancée, with him, but precious time is lost. Klim decides to stay with her and protect her while he still can.

This book examines the history of American exhibitions of Russian art in the twentieth century in the context of the Cold War. Because this history reflects changes in museological theory and the role of governments in facilitating or preventing intercultural cooperation, it uncovers a story that is far more complex than a chronological listing of exhibition names and art works. Roann Barris considers questions of stylistic appropriations and influences and the role of museum exhibitions in promoting international and artistic exchanges. Barris reveals that Soviet and American exchanges in the world of art were extensive and persistent despite political disagreements before, during, and after the Cold War. It also reveals that these early exhibitions communicated contradictory and historically invalid pictures of the Russian or Soviet avant-garde. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, museum studies, and Russian studies.

With the collaboration of Agnes Carbonell; photography by Leonid Ogarev; translated from the French by Ros Schwartz and Sue Rose. Translation of: Collectionneurs russes. Includes index.

This book features many of the remarkable works of art housed in the former armoury and other museums of the Moscow Kremlin, including Peter the Great's coronation crown, and Faberge's Tricentennial Easter Egg commissioned in 1913 by Nicholas II to celebrate 300 years of Romanov rule.