Russian businessman donates 70 icons worth around $1m to the Church
The property developer Sergei Shmakov has spent over a year tracking down the works, which were removed from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and during the second world war
By Sophia Kishkovsky | Web only
Published online 26 Oct 11 (News)
MOSCOW. A Russian businessman has donated more than 70 icons with an estimated value of Ru 30m (around $1m) to the Russian Orthodox Church. Property mogul Sergei Shmakov has spent over a year tracking down the icons—which were taken out of Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and during the second world war—at auctions, antique stores and flea markets abroad. The icons include a rare mid-18th-century icon, St John the Theologian in Silence, which depicts the apostle with his fingers over his lips and an angel peering over his shoulder as he contemplates the gospel he is composing.
At a ceremony on 4 October, the Russian culture minister Alexander Avdeyev praised Shmakov for his donation. “Your help is a matter of great patriotism,” said Avdeyev. “You could have spent your money on something else, on developing your business, for example, but you are returning to Russia not only sacred, but cultural treasures, works of art.”
The culture ministry said that Avdeyev had accompanied Shmakov on some of his travels abroad in search of the icons. Avdeyev supported a law passed last November that calls for the return of religious property seized by the state after the revolution to the Church. The law, which focuses on real estate, triggered fears that the Russian Orthodox Church would lay claim to all icons in museums.
