History

“I inherited my passion for the world of painting from my grandfather, a renowned writer, a man of extraordinary culture and a tireless traveller.

When I came to Russia for the first time in the 1980s, I immediately recognised the settings where the stories of Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Cholokhov… had taken place, and the music that had accompanied me since my childhood.

During this first trip, I managed to secretly visit Piotr Litvinsky’s studio and was amazed to discover that it contained his entire life’s work, never before exhibited. These works reflected an intimate diary of his life. From then on I began to acquire the first pieces.

Through the Surikov Institute (Academy of Fine Arts), Litvinsky introduced me to other important masters, in whose studios I found almost all of their work intact, and I became aware of the enormous importance of these hidden works that represented the work of the end of the Silver Age, the socialist, post-Soviet era and the renewed Russia, and that constituted the reflection of the authentic history and customs of its people.

From that moment on, I began a long and passionate journey of exhaustive research, trying to locate its great masters through the schools spread throughout the Soviet Union.

It has been an enormous privilege for me to have met most of the painters who participate in this Collection, and who are a very important part of my life. They have allowed me to enter their world and have given me all their affection and friendship, and the opportunity to know and love Russia deeply.”