“Putin won’t take it”: art critic Valery Dudakov – about Nina Moleva’s collection

What will happen to the controversial meeting bequeathed to the president?

The collection of the widow of avant-garde artist Eliya Belyutin Nina Moleva contains hundreds of works, which she herself described as paramount masterpieces and was valued at $2 billion. Now, according to the will, the entire collection must go to the state, because the deceased left everything personally to Vladimir Putin. However, the president is unlikely to accept such a gift, says art critic Valery Dudakov.

“Fakeness is the passing off of one artist as another,” famous art critic and collector Valery Dudakov tells MK. – There are no authentic works by famous artists there. I don’t think Putin will accept all this. It would be a mistake to accept this meeting. No one needs this from the point of view of the state.

-Have you seen this collection?

“I knew Belyutin and saw photographs of his collection, but I didn’t go to see them so as not to upset him. I’ve seen worse meetings. I knew one person who collected supposedly impressionist paintings, and then, when he found out that they were all fakes, he hanged himself. I think this story is worthy of a detective film, but it has nothing to do with art and museum work. The works that are there do not stand up to criticism.

Nina Moleva, who bequeathed a controversial treasury of works of art to Putin, has died: a gallery of exhibits

See photo gallery on the topic