The Inofficial Art Market in the USSR, 1917 - 1991

The aim of this project is to analyse and describe the development of private art collections in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991. The project focuses on the situation of Soviet art collectors, which changed repeatedly and at times dramatically in accordance with the official policy. It deals with Lenin`s decrees which led to large-scale nationalization of private property including art treasures following the revolution, the revival of the art market during NEP in the 1920s, the transports of trophy art at the end of World War II, as well as with the growing influence of private collectors in the 1950s and 1960s. Furthermore, it discusses the criminalization of the Soviet art market supported by corrupt police and KGB-officers: From the 1970s on numerous collections were robbed and destroyed, their owners, harrassed by the media, were sent to trial, prison and labors camps. Finally, it covers the process of rehabilitation initiated by Gorbachev, which ultimately led to the organization of public art institutions based on private initiative. Of great relevance will be an analysis of the often archaic structures and mechanisms of the inofficial art market, very different from the West. In the USSR economic aspects were less central to collecting than in the West. Despite of this and contrary to offiical policy, art collecting allowed some Soviet citizens to amass great fortunes. These fortunes became manifest in foundations of museums and donations, even to Western institutions. This complex subject matter has largely been ignored by Russian and Western scholars so far. There exist only a few descriptive and biographical studies, mostly composed as articles and mainly in Russian. For this reason, the projected study will be based on a comprehensive group biography of up to 80 representative collectors. Making use of extensive archival material, it shall present a chronological overview of the most important characteristics of collecting in the USSR. The work will be based on approaches of social and cultural history; aspects of cultural sociology (Bourdieu; Mänicke-Gyöngyösi etc.) will be included.