Lobanov-Rostovsky, Nikita Dmitrievich

Childhood and Youth

Grand-nephew of Prince Alexei Nikolayevich Lobanov-Rostovsky , a famous figure in the Russian Assembly . The son of Dmitry Ivanovich Lobanov-Rostovsky and Irina Vasilievna, ur. Cutting . His grandfather, Prince Ivan Nikolayevich (1866 - October 13, 1947), illegally left Soviet Russia with his sons in 1919. Nikita was born in Bulgaria, where the whole family settled.

In 1946, after the Soviet troops entered Bulgaria, they unsuccessfully tried to cross the Greek border with their parents: the family was arrested on Greek territory. Due to malnutrition, the 11-year-old boy fell ill and was transferred to the criminal prison, Sofia Central, where conditions were better. He spent a year in custody, after 6 months his mother, later father, was released. However, in 1948, Dmitry Lobanov-Rostovsky was abducted by the Bulgarian state security agencies and, as his son managed to find out only in 1992, was shot in a death row near the town of Pazardzhik ^[1] (camp "C").

On the doctor’s advice, in order to avoid rickets ^[2] , the young man began swimming, and in 1951 he became the champion of Bulgaria among young men at distances of 100 and 200 meters with the breaststroke style. In September 1953, Nikita and her mother managed to leave for Paris . His uncle, one of de Gaulle's closest associates among the Russians, Nikolay Vasilyevich Vyrubov, who worked at the UN Commissariat for Refugees, and future classic Romain Gary (deputy ambassador of France to Bulgaria) helped him.

In 1956, Irina died, and Nikita, while still living with her mother, received a scholarship from an organization to help refugees, moved to England to prepare for admission to the University of Geology at Oxford . It was then that he first saw the art, the collection of which he would devote his whole life to, having landed in London at the exhibition dedicated to “The Seasons of Russian Ballet ” by Sergey Diaghilev . He was led there by the godmother Ekaterina Lampert, the granddaughter of Count Benckendorf , the last ambassador of the Russian Tsar in England.

Career

Graduate of Oxford University (1958). To continue his education, he moved to the USA, entered the geological faculty of Columbia University in New York with a specialization in economic geology (geology of mining ore deposits), in 1960 he received a master's degree. He worked in a private bank, Lobe Rhodes, was engaged in oil exploration in Patagonia (Argentina) and the study of the Spanish language. Later, in search of mercury in Tunisia and Alaska, nickel in Venezuela, iron (itibarite) in Liberia, he worked on diamond mining in the Kalahari desert in South Africa.

Returning to New York, he worked at Chemical Bank (now Morgan Case Bank), and entered the evening faculty of New York University to study banking. In 1962, Mr .. received a master's degree in banking, then he married Nina Georges-Picot, daughter of the French ambassador to the UN and first deputy secretary general of the UN. From 1961 to 1967, he held the position of assistant head of the international branch of Chemical Bank. In 1967-1970 - the post of assistant vice president of Bache & Co also in New York. From 1970 to 1979, he was Vice President of Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, and also headed its branches in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. From 1980 to 1983, he served as senior vice president of International Resources and Finance Bank in London ^[3] .

After 1974, he visited the USSR constantly on the affairs of banks, of which he was an employee, and met with senior government officials of the country ^[4] . From 1987 to 1997 - Advisor to the De Beers South African Diamond Monopoly.

Member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgy, and Petroleum Engineers.

The couple moved from San Francisco to London in 1979.

Gathering

Together with his first wife, Nina began to collect works of theatrical decoration art by Russian artists of the first half of the 20th century. He first visited Russia in 1970, along with his wife, at the invitation of the Central State Archive of Literature and Art (TsGALI), where he transferred the archive of Sergei Sudeikin , with the assistance of the TsGALI, he was presented to the leading collectors of Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev.

Advisor to the Christie's auction house, and then Sotheby's, who evaluates his collection every 2-3 years. Member of the Board of Directors of the Theater Museum Association in London and lifetime member of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Philanthropy.

In 1967 he published a guide to theater artists "Who is who and where?" (Encyclopedia of Russian painters working for the stage).

He is a life-long member of the Philanthropic Museum's Philanthropic Union in New York, a member of the Cyril and Methodius Foundation Bureau in Sofia, a board member of the Institute for Contemporary Russian Culture in Los Angeles (California), a member of the Association of American Scientists of Russian Descent in New York, a member of the board of directors of the International Foundation for the Arts and Education in Washington, a member of the Society of Collectors in Moscow and London, an academician of the International Information Academy at the United Nations in Geneva, a trustee of the Russian Chamber rkestra in London, a member of the committee of "Russian Slavic art" in Moscow, and a member of the board of trustees "Anna Pavlova Foundation Charity" in Moscow, a member of the Presidium of the Coordinating Council in London and the first deputy chairman of the "International Council of Russian Compatriots" in Moscow. In 2003, he was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts ; since 2008, full member of the Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts ; in February 2016 he became an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts .

Awards: the main award of the International Council of Russian Compatriots, for their contribution to Russian culture and art, October 17, 2003; a medal in memory of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, for his contribution to Russian culture, October 20, 2004; Order of Friendship for contribution to the preservation of Russian art, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, February 29, 2005; Golden Muse Award for contribution to Russian-Bulgarian cultural relations, May 2009, “National of the Year” (2012) ^[5] , Russian Ludwig Nobel Prize (2013) ^{[6] [7]} . November 5, 2010 was awarded Russian citizenship by the decision of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev for special services to the Fatherland.

Collection (N. & N. Lobanov-Rostovsky collection)

“The beginning of my collection is the sketches of the suits of Sergei Sudeikin for the ballet“ Petrushka, ”says Nikita Dmitrievich. “I bought them for $ 25.” Lobanov-Rostovsky recalls the early stage of his gathering romantically: “I had no money. But then a detective’s hobby appeared. In the first years of my gathering, I worked a day, dined, and from eight o'clock in the evening until eleven at night I was engaged only in painting. First I found out which of the Russian artists where he lives and in what conditions. I talked a lot with emigrant artists. It was a world of poor people. Then no one needed their art. Many have already died. And widows or children did not know what to do with the picturesque legacy. It disappeared gradually. The compatriots treated me well, a Russian guy. I grew up in Bulgaria. I have a lot from a Muslim. I do not drink vodka. I’m drinking tea. And long conversations over tea in the homes of Benoit , Dobuzhinsky, Larionov yielded results. In a foreign land to talk about your past, to remember, to pour out your soul - is there any great joy? In those years, seeing my interest and poverty, they simply gave me some things like Boris Pasternak 's sisters, or sold graphic sheets, costume designs, sketches for moderate money. We lived on two salaries: mine and Nina's wife. We spent one to buy paintings. This is how our collection was assembled in Europe and North and South America. I perfectly understood then that I was fulfilling a mission: I was saving Russian art, which would simply have sunk into oblivion ” ^[8] .

Until 1980, he collected 90% of his collection. The collection is considered the world's largest private collection of Russian theatrical and decorative art, including 1100 works by about 177 artists. The Lobanov-Rostovsky collection covers 50 years of theatrical design, with special emphasis on the period 1905-1925. It presents Lev Bakst , Alexander Benois , Natalia Goncharova , Konstantin Korovin , Mikhail Larionov and others.

Since 1964, the collection has been exhibited in the USA, Canada, since 1982 - in Moscow and Western Europe, in 1998 - in Japan. “This is one of the rare private collections that has been moving from exhibition to exhibition for 40 years, from country to country and actually did not have a permanent home. The paintings, and among them the best Baksts in the world for Diaghilev's entreprise, were stored in warehouses in Germany, packed in professional containers and always ready to go on the next trip ” ^[9] .

American art historian John Bolt writes: “The Lobanov collection has become a kind of depository of many cultural values ​​that he saved from inevitable destruction and oblivion. The erudition and enthusiasm of the Lobanov-Rostovsky spouses brought to oblivion many names of artists and their achievements. Only fanatic devotion to the preservation of monuments of Russian art, passionate love for him could inspire such a difficult task as the creation of this unique collection ” ^[10] .

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  Ivan Bilibin. Costume design for H. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”

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  Leon Bakst Costume design for the ballet Peri. 1911

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  Natalia Goncharova. A sketch of the scenery for the opera by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov “The Golden Cockerel”. 1914

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  Alexandra Exter. Sketch of a woman's suit in a skirt with fijima. 1924

Gifts and Sales

He participated in the creation of the Museum of personal collections at the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin - in 1987 donated 80 works of Russian graphics from his collection. A special place among them is occupied by the famous series by Alexandra Exter "Theatrical scenery" (1930). On the eve of the opening of the Museum of Private Collections in 1994, he donated to the museum the gift of porcelain from the first third of the 20th century. ^[11] . The purchase of 200 works from him in 1995 for the Pushkin Museum failed ^{[3] [9]} . In February 2008, the Pushkin Museum received from him the canvas of the Italian metaphysician Giorgio de Chirico “The Melancholy of the Poet” (1916) and the watercolor of the Dutch suprematist Theo van Duisburg “The Black Zigzag” (1924), the theme of which caused his break with Pete Mondrian . The Museum of Marina Tsvetaeva received the gift “Portrait of Salome Andronikova ” by Alexander Yakovlev .

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  Drawing by Theo van Duisburg

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  Figure A. Yakovlev

A part of the collection (810 graphic sheets) was sold to him in January 24, 2008 to the Konstantinovsky charity fund for $ 16 million. ^[12] An additional 31 sheets were sold to the Fund in July 2010. This charity fund calls reconstruction and reconstruction of several architectural monuments its goal in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, he acted as the main investor in the reconstruction of the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna (now - the state complex "Palace of Congresses"). Currently, this part of the prince’s collection is in temporary storage at the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music . The Konstantinovsky Foundation plans to transfer it to the Star Trek complex, which is being built next to the Konstantinovsky Palace ^[13] . In October 2013, Presidential Executive Director Vladimir Kozhin announced that the collection will remain on a permanent basis at the Theater Museum, where it has been temporarily stored for the last five years ^[14] .

The remaining part of the collection (150 works) is owned by the former wife of Prince Nin. According to the prince in an interview in 2010, she "still doubts whether everything else should be returned to Russia. She has a fear of maintaining the integrity of our collection ” ^[8] . In March 2014, after the Konstantinovsky Foundation donated the collection to the Theater Museum, she decided to donate another 38 exhibits to the museum (from its part of the collection) so that the collection partially reunited ^[15] .

The Prince’s library of 3200 volumes and part of the photo archive was transferred to the House of Russian Abroad in Moscow in 2010.

He put forward the idea of ​​creating a National Portrait Gallery in Russia.

In 2015, he presented to the House of Russian Abroad in Moscow a sculpture “Unconquered” and a pencil drawing “Dialogue of two eras” with his portrait with Oksana Karnovich, the work of the artist and sculptor Khizri Asadulayev.

In 2017, it turned out that a number of paintings donated to the Rostov Museum turned out to be false ^[16] . Presented to the State Museum of Fine Arts, the work of Giorgio de Chirico is also presented in the State Catalog of the Museum Fund not as an original, but as attributed to this author dating from the 20th century ^[17] .

Exhibitions in Russia

• Moscow, US Embassy, ​​March 4, 1984 (200 works)
• Moscow, Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, 1988 (400 works)
• Moscow, Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, 1994–1995 (350 works)
• Petersburg, "Return to Russia" to the 100th anniversary of the St. Petersburg Museum of Theater and Music, from September 25 to October 26, 2008
• Petersburg, Chaliapin’s house, the project “Open Funds”, from April 28 to October 28, 2010
• Saratov, Radishchevsky Museum, from December 9, 2010 to January 31, 2011 (240 works)

House Museum

On September 2, 2001, by the decree of the Government of Moscow, the Memorial House-Museum of the Lobanov-Rostov Princes was opened in the “City of Masters” in the territory of the Fili Culture and Leisure Park. Nikita Dmitrievich was appointed freelance keeper of the house-museum ^[18] .

• First wife (from 1962 to 2000) - Nina Georges-Picot (Nina Vilgelmovna Lobanova-Rostovskaya). Nina was the daughter of the French envoy to the UN, and then the chairman of the UN Security Council, previously (in 1930) was the second secretary at the French embassy in Moscow. Divorced. The author of the book Soviet porcelain 1917-1927. London 1990 .
• Second wife, June Marsham Townsend, Englishwoman and descendant of (from 2001 to the present) ^[19]

No kids.

• Order of Friendship ( December 29, 2005 , Russia ) - for his great contribution to the preservation of Russian art, the strengthening and development of Russian-British relations in the field of culture ^[20] .
• Medal “In memory of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg” ( 2003 ).

• reference book of theater artists "Who is who and where?" (1967)
• Russian Artists and Theater (1969)
• Trade Finance (1980)
• Banking (1982).
• “Memoirs - Notes of a Collector” (2003)
• "The era. Fate Collection ”(2010)

collection:

• Boult, John and Lobanov-Rostovsky, Nikita. Artists of the Russian theater. 1880-1930. Collection of Nikita and Nina Lobanov-Rostovsky: Catalog-reason. Articles. - M: Art. In two volumes: t. 1 - 1990, t. 2 - 1994. - 420 s. + 98 s. silt

• List of theatrical works of Lev Bakst
• Zilberstein, Ilya Samoilovich
• Baron Falz-Fein, Edward Von

• Publications of N. Lobanov-Rostovsky in the New Journal
• Yandex press portrait
• Works from the collection on the website of the Konstantinovsky Foundation
• Guided tours in the collections of the Theater Museum
• Album (link not available)
• Lobanova N. D. personal fund in RGALI
• Collection of Nikita Dmitrievich Lobanov-Rostovsky

interviews and review publications:

• Prince Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky. Returned Seasons. Interview to Orloff Russian Magazine
• Our legacy. Interview
• Illustrated Russia magazine, 1993. Interview
• Our legacy. Interview
• Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky: I would like to be Lorenzo Medici. An article in Kommersant Money magazine
• Interview with the newspaper Kommersant
• Duty to Russia. An article in the journal "Other shores"
• A note on the speech of Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky at the University of Saratov
• Radio Liberty Interview
• Interview on Echo of Moscow
• Collection of the Lobanov-Rostov. The plot of the TV channel Culture
• "Epoch-Fate-Collection" - a book by Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky. The plot of the TV channel Culture
• Speech by Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky at the IV Assembly of the Russian World. Video. (inaccessible link)
• IV Assembly of the Russian world. Interview. (inaccessible link)
• New York Interview
• Interview with Nina Lobanova-Rostovskaya on Channel Five (inaccessible link)