By Vitaly KUKSA, The Day
The unique art collection owned until recently by Hradobank, when it
was transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine due to financial hardship
to settle its obligations, will remain in one piece and under public ownership.
This was determined by a resolution passed by Parliament after the NBU
announced it was planning to sell the collection to pay off the debts of
the bankrupt Hradobank.
The collection included over 700 canvases, including works by Picasso,
Kandinsky, Chagall, Dali, Renoir, Matisse, Pymonenko, Levchenko, Svietoslavsky,
Archipenko, Burliuk, and others. Experts maintain that it boasts works
never displayed in any Ukrainian museum, turn of the century European graphic
art, and modern (1960-90) paintings. Its starting price for an auction
scheduled in early November was $5,152,000 and the valuation committee
pointed out that in the course of bidding the cost could rise several times
higher.






