Picture conflict

The leadership of the International Center for the Roerichs, where the search was recently held, was accused of the Ministry of Culture of Russia of the "systematic destruction" of the museum, and the investigating authorities in its "armed capture". At a press conference on Thursday, representatives of the Center said that the Minister of Culture of Russia Vladimir Medinsky and his deputy Vladimir Aristarkhov have been pursuing a policy aimed at capturing the museum since November 2013. During this time, various departments conducted dozens of unscheduled inspections.

Aristarkhov himself told the media that he remembers these checks, all of them are allegedly related to violations of the law and the rules of operation of the building in which the center is located.

During a search in the International Center for the Roerichs. March 7, 2017

A search in the International Center for Roerichs in Moscow was held on Tuesday. Law enforcement officers seized more than 200 paintings. The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the search is connected with the case of fraud, excited in relation to the ex-head of the bank, in which the organization’s money was stored. The Vice President of the Center for Roerichs Alexander Stetsenko noted that this was only an excuse for the "armed capture of the museum." The protection of the International Center of the Roerichs intends to appeal investigative actions in the prosecutor's office, the main investigative department and the Investigative Committee of Russia.

On Thursday, it became known that 57 packs with paintings by Svyatoslav and Nikolai Roerichs, seized on March 7 from the International Center of the Roerichs, accepted the Museum of the East for storage. This information was confirmed by its general director Alexander Sedov.

Museum of the Roerichs

"The paintings of the Roerichs are in the Museum of the East as material evidence. How many works, I can’t say - there are 57 packages, we cannot unpack them, since they are sealed with the seal of the Investigative Committee. All further actions depend on the investigating authorities, we act as a warehouse," said Sedov.

We are talking about the seizure of those paintings that entered the International Center for the Roerichs from Boris Bulochnik, the ex-owner of the master bank , who is accused of fraud and is on the wanted list. Boris Bulchik is fond of the teachings of Nikolai Roerich, he used to be a member of the board of the International Center of the Roerichs, financed the restoration of the Lopukhins estate in the center of Moscow and the opening of the Nikolai Roerich Center-Museum in it.

The Deputy General Director of the Museum named after Roerich Pavel Zhuraikhin told Radio Liberty that he was behind the seizure of paintings and the possible eviction of the museum from the Lopukhin estate:

- The news today: the paintings seized in the center of the Roerichs two days ago ended up in the Museum of the East. How did it happen?

- In our country, this raises big questions, because, by and large, if the paintings are under investigation, they must enter the appropriate law enforcement agencies. And they were immediately taken to the Museum of the East. What is this talking about? This suggests that the Museum of the East and the Ministry of Culture are directly related to this robbery with the participation of power structures.

- What are the searches and seizure of paintings from the center of the Roerichs?

Our employees were not allowed to drink or eat, they took it to the toilet under escort

- I want to say that the searches lasted for almost a day, and our employees were not allowed to drink or eat, they took it to the toilet under escort, and all this was like literally 1937. All this time, the head of this team was the adviser to the Minister of Culture Kirill Rybak and the deputy director of the East Museum Tigran Mkrtychev. Why is it all happening? The fact is that when the Minister of Culture of Medinsky came, the policy of the Ministry of Culture in relation to our organization radically unfolded 180 degrees. We had excellent relations with the Minister of Culture Avdeev, with his predecessor Sokolov, and they understood the significance of the heritage of the Roerichs, very highly appreciated the work of our museum and our international center, including the promotion of the ideas of the Roerich Covenant , and the preservation of cultural heritage. But Mr. Medinsky and his First Deputy Mr. Aristarchkhs came to the ministry. He does not have a special education, has worked in the construction business for more than 8 years, and now he has been responsible for the preservation of cultural heritage, and this is his level of understanding of this cultural heritage. And Mr. Rybak, who ensures the legal and legal justification of the eviction of the International Center for the Roerichs, the destruction of this museum, he used to be an employee of the State Museum of the East.

- Is it about the eviction of the museum?

- Yes, I'm talking about it. The Ministry of Culture, as soon as Mr. Medinsky came to the post of minister, immediately began to raise the question that the International Center of the Roerichs did not have the rights to the legacy of Svyatoslav Nikolaevich that the State Museum needs to be created, and everything was done so that, on the one hand, our organization literally marvel in the press, that it was as he said in one of its first interviews, a certain fund wants to take away from the state, the state museum of the state museum East collection of state scale. From this moment, under such an ideological cover, actions began on our eviction.

One of the paintings of Nikolai Roerich

- Where is your museum located?

-Our museum is located literally a few kilometers from the Kremlin, this is the ancient estate of the Lopukhins, the 17-19th centuries. The estate was highlighted for this museum.

- How much museum already exists in this estate?

- We have existed for more than 25 years in this estate. Without a single penny of state funds, the estate was restored, due to donations and philanthropists. Hundreds of volunteers worked on the restoration of this building, helping restraint professionals. As a result, we restored this estate, all work was handed over to the “excellent” to the authorities.

- And on whose balance is this building?

- The word "on the balance" is not suitable here. The fact is that at first the estate was transferred to a long-term lease, for 49 years, until 2055, in my opinion, but in 2014, Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow, transferred the estate for free of charge to the International Center of the Roeries.

“And why are you afraid?”

- In 2015, Mr. Medinsky, our Minister of Culture, writes a letter to Sergey Semenovich Sobyanin: we ask you to transfer the building of the estate to federal property, so that we can fulfill the will of Svyatoslav Roerich to the end - to recreate the entire estate. Within a month, the building is transferred to the Federal Property Management Agency by his letter. This is generally unthinkable that according to the letter of Medinsky it is transmitted! And literally two weeks later, the Federal Property Management Agency transferred these buildings to the operational management not to us who recreated the estate, who created the museum, but the Museum of the East, which immediately began to take steps to liquidate the museum here. Naturally, under the cover of the Ministry of Culture.

- In general, you have a conflict with the Museum of the East, it turns out?

This is theft on a state scale

- You know, here with the Ministry of Culture and the Museum of the East. And this is not a property conflict, there the roots are much deeper there. The Museum of the East has a collection belonging to Svyatoslav Roerich. When he created a museum, at the very initial stages, he noted that his collection of 288 paintings previously transferred to the Soviet Union, which was previously transferred to the Soviet Union, let him be transferred to the public museum, which he created, the founder of which he became, and the public organization founded by the international center of the Roerichs. Not given! He wrote a letter to Yeltsin Boris Nikolaevich, already to the President of Russia, and said that "illegally holds the State Museum of the East of 288 of my paintings, I ask you to help." Nothing was done! The Ministry of Culture pulled under any pretexts. Why - it was unclear. Svyatoslav Nikolaevich dies in 1993, and only subsequently, having received copies of documents, we saw, having conducted our studies that some of the paintings were simply stolen, disappeared into the Museum of the East. This is just aft on a state scale!

One of the paintings of Nikolai Roerich

All these years we raised this question. At the same time, they decided not only to grab a beautiful building near the Kremlin, but also a gorgeous collection, we have a world -class collection, the largest in the world. We are the only organization where the legacy of the Roerichs is exhibited in full scale and is not stolen! And I remind you that with the connivance of the Ministry of Culture, the first part of the Roerich collection, the legacy of the Roerichs, their eldest son, Yuri Nikolayevich, who brought it here in 1957, tried to negotiate, promised, promised him, but did nothing. The collection was chopped into three parts, the first part went into the storerooms of the Tretyakov Gallery, the second - to the storerooms of the Russian Museum, and the third remained in the apartment. With the connivance of the Ministry of Culture, everything was plundered to the ground! No matter how much the public, we contacted law enforcement agencies, the Ministry of Culture - nothing was done!

-The media write that, according to the investigation, the seized pictures of your center allegedly gave the ex-owner of the master bank Boris Bulchik, who is accused of fraud, and he is now wanted. Legally, the paintings that you have now seized, who belonged to you?

-A very good question, because our museum has practically nothing to do with the master bank, with the exception of one moment-we had accounts in the master bank. All! The master bank never gave, I did not buy paintings for us. Given a specific person - Boris Ilyich Bulchik, members of his family and other philanthropists. Because we doubled the collection in comparison with the fact that it originally arrived from Svyatoslav Nikolayevich. These paintings were transferred to the museum under a gift agreement. The bakery had no rights. The owner is a museum. And now in the case of a bakery, the owner is taken away from the owner!

- What is the value of the seized paintings and what will happen to them next?

The cost of paintings is huge - from 1 to 12 million dollars

- The cost of the paintings is huge! One Roerich canvas, large -format, - from a million to $ 12 million costs at auctions. This is official data. Dozens have seized such paintings. Today I read that 54 boxes were supposedly brought with paintings by Roerich to the Museum of the East. Why to the Museum of the East - I have already explained, but what fate is scary to say! I asked the investigator: “Well, you are accused of all mortal sins by Boris Ilyich Bulochnik. But you take the paintings, and what next? Are you selling them to return the money to depositors allegedly?” I was an answer: "Yes, we will sell at auction." The mind is incomprehensible!