I would like to warn you from the start that the following is
no fiction, and that I am about
to tell you something that actually happened in Paris about two
months ago.
"Are you Countess Tarnovsky?"
"Yes. What is it you want?"
"Your ancestors lived in Ukraine. Would you like to see your grandfather's
portrait?"
The lady's eyes are round and she is frowning, but the young man is
nonplused. Deftly he produces a picture neatly wrapped in a piece of cloth,
unwraps it and shows it to the lady.
"There are also documents enclosed."
With disbelief and squeamishly the aristocratic woman leaves through
faded sheets, then looks at the picture again. Realization comes slowly.
And surprise. She stares at the portrait and at the documents. Finally
she asks:
"Where did you get all this? Who are you?"
The young man is well prepared for any questions.
"I work for an art and history society. We found this portrait in an
antique salon in Kharkiv. The artist is unknown, but we made an expert
examination. The picture dates from the mid-nineteenth century and it shows
Count V. I. Tarnovsky. Further inquiry revealed that his descendants live
in Paris. So here I am."
"Further conversation is kept very businesslike. In the end the visitor
hears the trite, "How much do you want for all this?"
"If you will pardon my saying so, we also have some information about
your financial status, so the one hundred thousand dollars I will charge
you is a worthy and realistic price for this picture. Please think it over.
Here is my telephone number when you make up your mind."
Three days later the phone in the young man's hotel room rings. The
countess' lawyer is prepared to bring the money and collect the picture.
The deal is done. Time to board a flight to Spain where they have located
Baron von Stiemach.
This young and intelligent man is the financial director of a thriving
Moscow firm. The latter avoids publicity for the simple reason that its
business is taking artistic valuables out of the country - in other words,
smuggling, which is strictly forbidden by the law.
The antique business is generally known to be extremely profitable,
but until now no one thought of increasing its profits dozens of times
trading not in masterpieces but in aristocratic portraits (considered the
most illiquid commodity), thousands of which are collecting dust in art
salons all over the former Russian Empire. The names inscribed are mostly
unknown. However, the smart people making up this firm realized that by
making certain efforts (hiring experts and restorers) some four or five
thousand such pictures could be traced to living descendants, since at
least half the aristocrats managed to escape the Red Terror by fleeing
to the West. Every fifth of these several thousand families is quite prosperous
and every tenth is rolling in dough. In other words, some 200 well-to-do
aristocratic families which are very pedantic about their family trees
and revere their ancestors' memory are this firm's potential customers.
Unfortunately, most of these families, due to generally known historical
reasons, cannot boast many family relics. When fleeing the Bolsheviks,
salvaging ancestral portraits was the least of their concerns. Nostalgic,
they are often willing to pay staggering sums to have some of such relics
back - a whim which pays well and which the said firm is willing to oblige.
The case with Countess Tarnovsky is one of several as in the summer
of 1998 the Demidovs' descendants living in the United States paid $75,000
for a portrait of Varvara Demidov (mid-nineteenth century) found and bought
by the Moscow firm in Nizhni Novgorod for $250. One of the offshoots of
the Pashkovs, now in Holland, paid $180,000 for a portrait of Yelena Pashkov
(early nineteenth century and in an excellent condition; the portrait was
sold by an antique shop in Moscow for $1,200). The firm also operates in
Ukraine. This September a portrait of Vasyl Kapnist (1758-1823) was sent
to his descendants in France, the firm pocketing $37,000, after spending
$800 on its purchase at an art salon in Kharkiv.
This business is brand new. Our files say there are no aristocratic
portrait dealers in Ukraine, not yet. And there are still plenty of such
portraits in art salons and antique shops.







