The Supreme Court liquidated the International Confederation of the Union of Artists - the owner of the Central House of Artists

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on Wednesday liquidated the International Confederation of the Union of Artists, in whose possession the Central House of Artists is located.

At the previous meeting, the Ministry of Justice reported that the confederation, in particular, did not provide information on its sale of 26 works of art abroad, which is a violation of the law. In addition, according to the plaintiff, ICA provided inaccurate data in the financial statements of the association's expenses for labor.

In violation of the confederation, they also considered renting out their premises, including the Central House of Artists on the Crimean Val. The representative of the Ministry explained that among the tenants of the Confederation there are a number of extraneous legal entities, such as Alfa Bank, "while the association's statutes declare the aims of activities related to art.

The Justice Ministry notes that renting premises for rent has nothing to do with culture and art. At the same time, the lawyer of the department admitted that she did not know for what purposes the money received for these services was spent. The Ministry of Justice also established that the confederation violated the frequency of meetings of the executive committee, according to the statute they were to be held at least once a quarter.

However, representatives of the confederation believe that they are liquidated for the purpose of weaning property, including the famous Central House of Artists, part of which is owned by the Tretyakov Gallery, and the other by the Confederation. In addition, the confederation owns a huge collection of Soviet paintings - about 50,000 works of art, including 4,500 paintings, as well as the houses of the works "Senezh" and "Khosta", the publishing house "Galart" (formerly "Soviet Artist") and more Several properties.

The claims of the Ministry of Justice were considered insignificant by the artists and declared that they were ready to promptly eliminate all violations. As for the paintings sold abroad, according to the respondents, all the documents necessary for this procedure were formalized.

The Confederation attracted the attention of the press in 2014, when Sotheby's exhibited in London several works from its collection. According to the first deputy head of the Ministry of Culture Vladimir Aristarkhov, there were three cases of export of paintings in which violations were committed: two times the canvas was taken out by the head of the ISSH Masut Fatkulina and once the main curator of the collection of Rushania Akhunova. He clarified that in their statements it was stated that the pictures belonged to the applicants and were exported for personal use, but in fact the pictures came from the collection of the Union of Artists of the USSR.

According to Aristarkhov, Fatkulin and Akhunova were announced for the export of watercolors and paintings of Soviet artists - Sergei Gerasimov, George Nyssa, Vladimir Stozharov, Alexander Deineka and several other masters. At the auction Sotheby's were sold several works - the picture of Nyssa went for 1.762 million pounds, the picture Stozharov for 410.5 thousand pounds and the picture of Gerasimov for 62.5 thousand pounds.

Subsequently, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation submitted an introduction to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation on violations of the export of cultural property, their examination and evaluation.