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All the Empty Palaces

The Patrons Who Brought Modern Art to Russia

29 Feb 2008
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By 1917, Moscow textile merchant Sergei Shchukin had assembled the most important collection of modern Western art in the world, including numerous works by Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso. Yet for more than seventy years he and his fellow collector, Ivan Morosov, were obliterated from the Soviet record. Authors Hilary Spurling, Natalia Semonova and Beverly Kean recount how Kean first uncovered their remarkable story.

In the Reynolds Room; 6.30-7.30pm

Academy Shop

Show photo credits

Joan Miró, The Birth of Day 1 (Naissance du jour 1), 1964. Oil on canvas, 146 x 113.5 cm. Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, Saint-Paul. Photo © Galerie Maeght.
© Succession Miró/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2008.

 

The Antioch Chalice, Byzantine, from Syria, possibly Kaper Koraon or Antioch, first half of the sixth century. Silver cup set in footed silver-gilt shell, Height 19. 7 cm. Lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The Cloisters Collection, 1950 (50.4). Photo © The Metropolitan Museum of Art