A new twist in the high-profile case of Igor Toporovsky

Less than five years have passed since the investigation into the case of Igor Toporovsky, who in 2017 amazed the world art community with an exhibition of unknown Russian avant-garde in Ghent, ended. Experts then bombarded the Belgian Museum of Fine Arts with letters doubting the authenticity of the works presented. Igor Toporovsky had to explain where the “masterpieces” of Malevich, Tatlin and Kandinsky came from to the police, who in December 2019 opened a case against him on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and trafficking in stolen goods. For the last four years, the “collector” has been in custody (due to violating the rules of being under house arrest) awaiting trial. As MK learned, investigative actions have just been completed and the case will soon be brought to court. The denouement of the loudest counterfeiting scandal in recent history is coming.

Let us recall the essence and chronology of the high-profile case. 2017 October 13. The first information appears about the opening of the exhibition at the Ghent Museum. A week before the presentation, the Belgian newspaper La Libre published an announcement entitled: “A very amazing collection of Russian avant-garde art by Igor Toporovsky.” As it turns out later, the collection is truly amazing.

La Libre journalist Igor Toporovsky and museum director Catherine de Zegher (familiar to the Russian public as the curator of the 5th Moscow Biennale in 2013) said: “This is an attempt to rewrite the history of the Russian avant-garde.” Toporovsky promised to open a separate museum for his collection – in the Dilegem mansion in Jet. The center of the Russian avant-garde near Brussels was supposed to occupy an area of ​​1200 square meters. m, and they were going to show hundreds of previously unknown works by Russian avant-garde artists!

Where did Toporovsky get such wealth? The museum exhibition in Ghent, which for some reason was called “Russian Modernism” (it seems the authors got confused in the terms), presented several dozen “masterpieces” by Kandinsky, Malevich, Tatlin, Exter, Lissitzky. The audience was especially struck by the spinning wheel and chest, allegedly painted by Kazimir Malevich.

A wave of indignation began in January 2018. Connoisseurs of the Russian avant-garde bombarded the administration of the museum in Ghent with letters with doubts about the authenticity of the works. On January 15, an open letter signed by 10 specialists in the Russian avant-garde appeared in the newspaper De Standaard. Everyone unanimously said: the exhibition in Ghent is “very dubious.” “These works have never been shown at exhibitions, have not been reproduced in serious scientific publications, and have no sales history,” the letter said. On January 18, the Minister of Flemish Culture, Sven Gatz, demanded that the collection be examined and announced the creation of a special expert commission to verify its authenticity.

Then the story developed slowly, but no less amazingly. Igor Toporovsky (born in 1966) talked about himself and his collection – so much so that everyone was amazed. Take his biography, for example. In 1988, he graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, as he claims, with honors. He worked in the team of Gorbachev, and then Yeltsin. And he was almost a “secret diplomat” in Brussels. “I have always been an independent specialist, so I can manage a lot of projects in parallel.

In 2005, he worked for more than six months under a contract in the Presidential Administration. And the journalists have already quarreled me in absentia with Putin, whom I, of course, don’t even know,” Toporovsky said in an interview with MK in 2018. In general, he presented himself magnificently.

However, according to our data, everything is not entirely true. Igor Toporovsky was a small fry in the Russian mission to the UN, like an assistant. But with great ambitions in the collecting environment. “MK” found out that Igor Toporovsky was involved in the Preobrazhensky case and it was because of it that he left his homeland. This case is no less loud. In 2004, the spouses Tatyana and Igor Preobrazhensky opened the Russian Collection gallery in Gostiny Dvor, which, as it soon became clear, sold counterfeits.

One of the deceived lovers of beauty, Valery Uzzhin, who was given 34 fakes for $8 million, brought charges – as a result, in 2008, the Preobrazhenskys were sentenced: Tatyana – 9 years in prison, her husband Igor – 8.5. So, while the Preobrazhenskys were working, they also collaborated with Igor Toporovsky. One day he brought them two works—supposedly by Kandinsky and Malevich. He said that they were “from the Orbeli family through a certain Kamo Manukyan.” The Preobrazhenskys managed to sell the paintings at a good margin. Toporovsky admitted during interrogation that he received almost $3 million from the spouses.

“They offered Kandinsky and Malevich, which the Preobrazhenskys received from Toporovsky, to their client, a man in power,” says our source close to the investigation working on the Preobrazhenskys’ case. — During interrogation, the Preobrazhenskys testified that they sold the paintings for a profit of $1.5 million. We were unable to seize this money – we managed to transfer it offshore. It was also not possible to obtain things for examination. The victim categorically refused to submit the work for examination and said that he had no problems with it. In other words, he did not want to cooperate with the investigation. But we contacted the family of the former director of the Hermitage Orbeli. They asked if the family had a collection. It turned out that they never had Russian art, only Eastern vases and Western paintings. That is, Toporovsky came up with provenance. We realized that this was a criminal episode. He emigrated from Russia shortly after the interrogation.

– Where did he get these works from?

“I managed to meet a man who, according to him, for many years organized the supply of counterfeit paintings to Europe for Toporovsky. This happened after Toporovsky left Russia. According to this “businessman,” Toporovsky, having received another batch of fakes, did not pay him, but he paid about 5 thousand dollars for the painting. Over the course of several years, Toporovsky thus ordered the production of about 200–300 fake paintings, painted in the style of leading artists of the Russian avant-garde.

In short, Igor Toporovsky could have ended up in the dock even in the early 2000s. But this will happen only in 24 years. According to Belgian law, he faces up to 10 years in prison. But Toporovsky can get away with 6 months by paying a fine. The verdict in this case will affect the entire picture of fakes of Russian art in the West. If a “collector” suspected of fraud involving very large sums gets off with a slight fright, then we should expect new and no less original exhibitions of Russian art over the hill. Whether the Belgian court will take into account Toporovsky’s Russian criminal “episode” and what will happen to his “masterpiece collection” is a very interesting question.