WEBVTT

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[music] Today, Moscow is the European City with the
largest number of millionaires and billionaires.

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They’ve all made their fortunes
since the collapse of the USSR,

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and most of them thanks to
favors from the Kremlin.

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In less than 15 years, they’ve taken over
whole sectors of the Russian economy.

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They are the Oligarchs. Every year they
earn hundreds of millions of dollars

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and spend them just as fast. You see them
buying houses in London and New York,

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private jets or luxury cars.
But the latest fad

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amongst these nouveau riche
is fine art, the very finest,

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a nutrient that comes with the
blessing of Russian power.

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[music]

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When you’re really wealthy and you’ve
made it or want people to think you have,

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you must show an interest in painting. You must be
seen at openings and above all, you must buy art.

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The financial crisis

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and Russia’s own economic problems don’t seem to
have affected this closed world of art lovers.

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[sil.]

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These new collectors with
their limitless buying power

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and moving West to London for instance.
On November 30th, 2009,

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there was a rare sale of personal
effects of the Russian imperial family.

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Hundreds of collectors
took part in the sale,

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in the auction room itself or by
telephone, fighting other relics

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of Czarist history have ever trifling.

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The bidding for this Fabergé snuff box
made for the last Tsar started at €60,000.

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The price went up by the second.

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[sil.]

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Within less than a minute,

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the price of that little box shot
up to over half a million euros.

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Ten years ago in this business,

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nobody saw this boom coming. If they had,
even the most, you know, talented dealers

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uh… who can spot a dealer a mile ago would
have been putting… putting to get buying

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(inaudible) by the truck load, you know.
I mean, the…

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the prices have gone tenfold in the last 10 years. I think it’s
outstripped the oil market and it has been one of the fastest moving,

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growing markets that we’ve seen.

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Russians will clearly stop at nothing
to reclaim their national heritage.

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The one of sale of the Rostropovich collection
is another example of this new craze.

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The sale of the 450 items that had once
belonged to the Great Russian cellist

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was announced as the
highlight of the season.

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To everyone’s surprise, a few hours
before the event was scheduled,

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Sotheby’s called a press conference. Before an
astonished audience, the seller Rostropovich’s widow

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declared the auction cancelled. She had
just sold off her entire collection

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to most a mysterious
Oligarch Alisher Usmanov.

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It’s very unusual situation
uh… where, you know, to…

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to have a collection like that withdrawn from
sale literally 24-48 hours before the auction

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and so it… it… it was something that I
didn’t think anyone was prepared for.

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In the whole history of Sotheby’s, it was
the first time a sale had been cancelled.

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The surprise was all the greater because Alisher Usmanov,
an Uzbek billionaire and friend of Vladimir Putin,

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had never expressed any particular interest in
art. The few paintings decorating his office

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reveal all you need to know
about his taste in art.

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Ten days later,

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Usmanov gave away the reason for his sudden passion for art.
He bought the collection to offer it to the Russian State

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to be exhibited in a palace in St.
Petersburg. Perhaps, it’s no coincidence

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that it’s the same palace chosen by
Vladimir Putin for his official receptions.

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It’s also clear that Usmanov paid to get
into the good books of the Kremlin.

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The price he paid for the collection remains
undisclosed. It’s rumored to have been over $70 million,

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another little present for the Kremlin.
Before that,

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Russia’s richest banker donated a million dollars to buy
Malevich’s Black Square for the (inaudible) collections.

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And oil tycoon Viktor Vekselberg bought
a whole collection of Fabergé egg

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to be exhibited in Russia.

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Marat Gelman has an insider’s
knowledge of the system.

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He’s one of Moscow’s most prominent gallery owners. And he also
has another role, a spin doctor to Russia’s political leaders.

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Russia is among the most corrupt countries in the
world, and every businessman understands the message.

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If he refuses, his next contract will not be signed
or he may find himself charged with tax fraud.

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If Russians will do anything to
buy the favors of the government,

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Western art dealers will
do anything to attract

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these buyers with bottomless pockets.
In 2008,

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the Russian market alone counted
for 40% of Sotheby’s turnover.

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Natalia Kurnikova is one of
these Russian art buyers.

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She hasn’t missed a
single sale in 15 years.

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If you look at particularly
the early 20th century,

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the Russian avant-garde, Russian modernism, that
was always very collectible. We had sales over

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20 years ago where our Western collectors
based in the states, based in Europe,

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would collect Russian names alongside
and Picasso, alongside Matisse.

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Umm… Nowadays the Russians will bid out bid them,
so even though there are very good strong pieces,

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Russian modernist artists, they’re not going into Western collections, they’re
going into Russian collections because the Russians simply will pay more.

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Natalia Kurnikova has
made a successful bid.

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She’s bought a picture by an avant-garde
Russian painter at her target price €150,000.

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Since she acquired her first painting
at the beginning of the 1990s,

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she’s made a name for herself as a modern
art dealer and built a large collection.

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And to showcase her works, she’s had her own
gallery built in (inaudible) suburb of Moscow.

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Natalia bought her first
paintings to decorate her home.

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She is typical with the new art collectors. In
order to make informed decisions and good deals,

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they started to hang around
auction halls and galleries,

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and they were enthralled by the world they
discovered. Today, they own hundreds of works of art

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and only too happy to display them to the public.
In Natalia’s gallery, nothing is for sale.

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Everything is there to
be shown or shown off.

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A few months ago, Natalia mounted
a very special exhibition

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devoted to one particular
piece in her collection.

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It’s a work by Vladimir Putin.

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In January 2009, Vladimir Putin tried his
hand at painting for the very first time.

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What a surprise! Since Russia’s Prime
Minister had shown no previous interest

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in the arts except the martial arts.

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His painting was auctioned at a charity sale to fund hospitals.
The starting price was set at a few hundred dollars.

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Within 15 minutes, the bids
have sold to a million dollars.

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And it’s Natalia who bought the piece.

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This painting will retain its charm and its
value as long as Vladimir Putin stays in power.

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But why would the nation’s leader who until

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then to chosen to basis image on his
sporting prowess suddenly decide

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to associate his name with the art market.
Simply because nowadays in Russia

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everything that touches on art, generates
a remarkable frenzy. And this new fashion

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says a lot about the new business elite
and the true nature of power in Russia.

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[sil.]

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There are countless reasons to start buying works of art.
Some collect as an investment to show off their wealth.

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Others collect Russian art to
buy themselves a patriotic past

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or to reconnect with the
(inaudible) of eternal Russia.

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They buy works of art to redeem their image
or to win the favors of the government.

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But whatever the reason, very soon
most of the new collectors are taken

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over by this consuming passion.

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Every Russian collector sees himself
as an heir to this great tradition

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and looks back nostalgically to its heyday
at the beginning of the 20th century.

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A hundred years ago just like today, all the
money in the country flew towards Moscow,

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the economic center of the empire.
In a few years,

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former peasants and shopkeepers
amassed immense fortunes.

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They settled in mansions and started
to buy paintings to adorn their walls.

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Several of these upstarts accumulated
immense collections long before bonds,

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Guggenheim or other American collectors.

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In Russia, their names were
(inaudible) or Shchukin.

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[music]

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Natalia Simeonova has
spent 30 years uncovering

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the strange fate of the
Shchukin Collection.

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Around that time, Shchukin became the biggest
textile merchant in the whole of Russia.

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He traded with the entire planet.
He was wealthy.

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And at the age of 40, he fell in love at
first sight with the French Impressionist.

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Today, two-thirds of the
works bought by Shchukin

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can be found in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg,
the largest art museum in the country.

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This great art lover had to flee
Russia after the revolution,

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leaving his whole collection behind. At the time,
it was the best modern art collection in the world.

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[sil.]

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Andre-Marc, Shchukin’s French grandson

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was the first descended to rediscover the
treasures assembled by his grandfather.

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He tells the story of his grandfather and
his art collection in the museum galleries

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that the Hermitage has given a
special permission to film in.

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Shchukin put together a fantastic collection
works by Gauguin, Suzanne, Monet, Van Gogh,

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(inaudible) Picasso, and Matisse. He created
the first modern art museum in the world.

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Sergei Shchukin opened his collections
to the public. You could just phone

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and make an appointment, and the owner
himself would show you his treasures.

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The entire 20th century Russian avant-garde
drew inspiration from these rooms.

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Shalva Breus is a millionaire
just like Sergei Shchukin.

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He owns a paper conglomerate
as well as a financial group.

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Not everyone has a Chagall in children’s bedroom.
Shalva Breus is one of those Russian businessmen

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who after making a fortune in the new economy has spend
without limit to satisfy his new consuming passion.

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Shalva remains type dipped about his business,
but he’s unstoppable about his collection.

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But this fantastic collection is not enough
for Shalva Breus. He has set himself

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the mission of educating future generations of
Russians in contemporary art just as Shchukin

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did in his time. That’s why he
bought an art view, Art Chronika

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and created the Kandinsky Prize, awarded
every year to the best Russian artists.

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[music]

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[music]

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In this new Russia where easy money
co-exists with nostalgia for Soviet values,

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many people are vary of Oligarchs. They’re
accused of plundering the country.

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So the nouveau riche have to find
ways of cleaning up their image.

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Of course, you could donate money
to an orphanage or a hospital,

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but there’s a more pleasant and more
efficient alternative, associate your name

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with the artistic education of the people.

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In 2008, Roman Abramovich
decided to play this card.

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A personal friend of Yeltsin and Putin, the owner of
Chelsea Football Club and the wealthiest man in Russia,

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he financed the first Centre for
Contemporary Art in Moscow.

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Abramovich prefers to remain in the background. He
gave this first private center for Contemporary Art

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to his companion Daria Zhukova,
who at 25 is now the owner

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of the largest exhibition venue in Russia.

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She’s a good example of an oligarch kent, the
daughters, mistresses or wives of oligarchs,

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who now manage the world of art in Russia.
For Daria who grew up

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in the United States and speaks English better than
Russian, it’s a spectacular return to her Homeland.

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I hope to initiate many
projects of Russian artists

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and open to create a platform for
Russian artists to go abroad

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and just keep up promoting contemporary
art. Historically Russia has always been

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a big patron of the arts, so I
think that uh… perhaps there’s now

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a higher interest in Russia and
a bit more attention on Russia,

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so people are starting to recognize Russia as a
player in the art (inaudible) might as well.

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It’s a master stroke for Roman Abramovich,
accusations of earning billions

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in a shadowy relationship with the Kremlin and
funneling his money abroad has swept aside.

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He can now appear as a generous
selfless patron of the arts.

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[music]

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And of course it’s the garage that Russian government
selected to host The Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.

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The works exhibited was selected
by (inaudible) former director of

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the Beaubourg Museum in Paris.

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Many world famous artists have agreed to
come. Are they hoping to find buyers?

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It’s possible to change the place.

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This one, here. This one…

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Lots of things are happening
in Moscow these days.

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It’s become the center of Europe, in a way.
A small world center.

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It’s a big change from our Western

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Paris-London-Berlin-Milan context.

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It’s something else. Obviously…

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the fact that there are so
many collectors in Russia

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is a strong point for the country.
Because we know we present exhibits

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to a well-informed
audience that’s interested

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in contemporary art.

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[sil.]

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Collectors and patrons are all here.
Transactions are carried out

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to sweetly behind the scenes.

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Shalva Breus witness the deal making during
his first visit with the few collected frames

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before the official opening at the VNR.

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Let me tell you a secret. After our visit
yesterday, Julius Popp’s water jetty

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will remain in Moscow.

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It’s an interesting work that
will stay in Russia. It was sold.

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It says one person in Russia

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who’s likely to buy, it’s Stella Kesaeva
owner of the Stella Art Foundation

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and wife of Russia’s
biggest tobacco importer.

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[sil.]

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Stella was the first oligarch (inaudible)
of the arts. She launched the fashion

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in 2003 when she created her foundation
supporting contemporary art in Russia.

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At the time, everyone thought she
was crazy, now she is a role model.

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[sil.]

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[non-English narration]

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Stella knows most of the artists on show.

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Some are already in her
collections next to (inaudible).

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But what interests her most is Russian

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conceptual art and its stake on society.

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Stella decided that her great mission would be to help
people discover contemporary art just as Sergei Shchukin

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had done with the Impressionists. However, she is
trying to win recognition for Russian art in the West.

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In (inaudible) Stella financed her own pavilion
next to the Official Russian Pavilion.

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For the opening ceremony (inaudible)
Russia’s most famous conductor

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brought his orchestra from St. Petersburg.

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[music]

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So we came together to this orchestra here from
St. Petersburg in the middle of our (inaudible)

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Stella, thank you for bring us here.
And especially

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thank you for bringing
so much art (inaudible).

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All of Stella’s projects are
financed by her husband,

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Igor Kesaev an oligarch who is said
to be close to the secret services

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and who controls a large part of the tobacco and
liquor business in Russia. His wife’s activities

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allow him to present himself as an art lover
and gloss over the origins of his fortune.

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In 1910, two years after
their first meeting

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Sergei Shchukin commissioned his favorite
artist to create two large panels

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for the grand staircase of his Moscow home.
For his Russian patron

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Henri Matisse painted two works that would
become landmarks in the history of art.

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Many collector\'s dream of immortality
as the patron of a Matisse or Picasso.

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Will these collectors be recognized as
protectors of the geniuses of the 21st century?

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Stella would like to believe so.

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She has open two galleries in
Moscow showing Russian artists

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that she\'s trying to turn into international
celebrities. To support their projects

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however outlandish Stella even agrees to
leave her home and travelled to Russia.

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Because you may love Russian
artists and still prefer

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
to live in the West. Stella\'s husband
has chosen to base his family in Monaco

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
where the climate and the tax laws gentler.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:33.000
[non-English narration]

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
Stella has succeeded in launching the
careers of several Russian artists.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
But foremost among them are Igor
Makarevich and his wife Elena.

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
In Soviet times their works were known
only to a handful of intellectuals.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
They were very different from the
prevailing socialist realist style.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:30.000
Stella has been sponsoring
them for five years.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
But why should the state invest
when there were oligarchs to do it.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
In 2009, Stella exhibited her
prodigies not at an art fair

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
but in a museum in Vienna alongside one
of the world\'s greatest collections

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:25.000
of Renaissance art.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
Why would the Russian State want to
nationalize Stella\'s collections.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
Here to Shchukin story gives an indication.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
In 1917, the October Revolution overthrew

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
the Tsar and abolished private property.
Lenin, then signed the decree

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
nationalizing Shchukin\'s and Tsar
collection naturally without compensation.

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
It was to be housed in a new museum
for the education of the people.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
When at the end of the 1940s,

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
Stalin\'s USSR entered the Cold War,
the Shchukin collection once again

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
paid a price. One of the government\'s first
campaigns was against Western influences.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
Stalin decreed that this collection a
decadent, cosmopolitan, impressionist art,

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
must disappear.

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
It was split arbitrarily between the
two largest museums in the country,

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
the (inaudible) in Leningrad and the Pushkin
Museum in Moscow. The paintings disappeared

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:08.000
into the reserves of the museums. The collection cease to exist
and the name of its owner was struck out of history. [sil.]

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
For 30 years, generations
of Russians grew up

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
without knowing dance and music by
Matisse or masterpieces by Picasso,

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:35.000
Van Gogh and Matisse.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
[music]

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
Even today, there is no collection in the eyes of
the Russian authorities. Only a series of works

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
belonging to the national heritage. Sergei
Shchukin name has no particular cache.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
That\'s unacceptable say his
modern successes like Shchukin,

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
they\'ve accumulated remarkable
works and hope to see their names

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
go down in history.

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:13.000
The government ignores the issue

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
even when pressed by Petr Aven
the former minister. Now running

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:35.000
the country\'s largest private bank.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
Although he\'s a billionaire, he doesn\'t buy
galleries for his wife or support artists.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:55.000
He collects in a rather more classic
way, as a Western collector (inaudible).

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
Petr Aven has the largest private
collection of Russian art in the World.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
He\'d like to exhibit his treasures and win the public\'s
gratitude like say, Peggy Guggenheim or J. Paul Getty.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
But Russia doesn\'t play by the same rules.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:53.000
In Russia,

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
everyone knows that whatever your
status or fortune, you can lose it all,

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
which is another reason to collect
and spend your money liberally.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
Today, the children of the
Oligarchs are entering the market.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
People like 24-year-old Maria Baibakova.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
[sil.]

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:43.000
Maria studied in the United States.
On her returned to Russia,

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:50.000
her father offered her a little
present, an art gallery.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:40.000
[sil.]

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
Baibakova Art Project another Russian style
gallery. A gallery where nothing is sold,

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
where art is promoted by inviting the
most expensive artists like Luc Tuymans,

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:05.000
the fashionable Belgian painter.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
In order to prove that it\'s genuine art,

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:55.000
some veterans of the Russian
art scene have been invited.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
Tusovka, the highlife of the post-Soviet
(inaudible) has taken over the city.

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
The in crowd moves from one society of an end
to another, exclusive party to private sale,

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
in a series of invitation only openings.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
A hundred years ago, Henri Matisse spend three weeks in
Moscow at the invitation of his collector Sergei Shchukin.

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
Matisse wrote to his friend\'s
life is so (inaudible) in Moscow,

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
there\'s partying through the night
to till morning. This is the life,

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
the grand life. What\'s more
the city has character.

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
Many things have changed

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
since Matisse, political
regimes, borders, ideologies.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
But what\'s happening in the field of art shows
that whether under gilded icons or red stars,

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
the true nature of Russian society
has hardly changed. These are

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:30.000
very elaborate source of (inaudible).