The arrest of Roizman forced to talk about the fate of the Museum of the Nevyansk Icon

Experts are worried about the unique collection collected by the disgraced politician

The security forces raided the apartment of the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman – he is suspected of discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). They searched not only his apartment, but also the Museum of the Nevyansk Icon, founded by the politician in 1999. For the last 15 years, the exposition has been located on the second floor of house No. 15 on Engels Street. Roizman himself lives on the third, and on the first there is an ART-bird gallery owned by his wife Yulia Kruteeva (she was in the city during the searches).

The gallery and museum are currently closed. The governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Evgeny Kuyvashev, said in a video message that the ex-mayor should be treated fairly and the unique museum should be preserved.

Political scientist, guide and researcher of Yekaterinburg Dmitry Moskvin lives opposite Yevgeny Roizman. The windows of Dmitry’s house look exactly at the building, decorated with multi-colored tiles and the sign “Nevyansk Icon”. On the morning of August 24, law enforcement officers raided there. Searches were carried out there for several hours, after which Yevgeny Roizman was taken to the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk region, and from there they were sent to Moscow for investigative actions.

“From the windows of my apartment, I saw that law enforcers and journalists had gathered near the house,” Dmitry Moskvin says to MK.

– You have probably been to the museum more than once, tell us how the exposition and the house itself are arranged?

The museum has existed since 1999. He changed the site several times, and for the last 15 years he has been located in this place. This is part of Roizman’s living quarters. There are several hundred icons, utensils – these are very interesting objects.

The very history of the Nevyansk school is connected with the Old Believers, the desire to express their vision of the world. This is an unprecedented collection – there is nothing like it either in Nevyansk itself or in other museums. Everything is worked out here, there are books, research, publications and a restoration workshop.

The house was built in the late 2000s. It was designed in such a way that you can move from the museum to the apartment on the floor above, where Roizman lives. Thus, the museum is, as it were, part of his apartment.

The exposition of the museum is a large hall, which is divided into several zones by special structures, where icons hang in a dense tapestry. There are also objects related to church history, and on the stairs there are several art paintings by Misha Shayevich Brusilovsky, a famous Yekaterinburg artist who died several years ago. They were friends with Roizman.

The museum’s collection contains more than 700 unique items.

– This is a wonderful museum – the first private museum in our country, – says “MK” icon painting specialist, leading researcher at the Department of Old Russian Art

Russian Museum and expert of the Ministry of Culture Irina Shalina. – Evgeny Roizman is not an art critic, but he plunged very deeply into the problems of late icon painting, which few people were interested in at that time (in the 1990s – MM.). He, in fact, became one of the discoverers of the Nevyansk icon. Prior to that, there was no such thing. His collection represents the entire history of the development of this Old Believer center. This is the only meeting of its kind.

– Can I rate this collection?

For professionals, it is invaluable. When it comes to the value of this or work, you need to do a tremendous job of research and comparison with other similar monuments, and most importantly, you need a special judicial license. As an expert of the Ministry of Culture on the icon, I used to be able to at least approximately estimate the cost in the examination, but now I do not have the right. I can only say that this is a unique collection around which a lot of research work has been done.

The Nevyansk school is a unique phenomenon of late icon painting that appeared in Nevyansk at the beginning of the 18th century and existed until the first third of the 20th century. It is considered the pinnacle of the Ural Old Believer icon painting. For a long time, Nevyansk was a kind of capital of the Demidov dynasty of industrialists, who adhered to the views of the Old Believers. Therefore, followers of the old faith flocked to Nevyansk. The rich mining center has also become a unique cultural point, known not only for its leaning tower, but also for its icon painting school. In 2003, in a city located 76 km from Yekaterinburg, with the help of Yevgeny Roizman, the “House of the Nevyansk Icon” was opened. But his collection is much smaller than the collection of the ex-mayor.

The Museum of the Nevyansk Icon in Yekaterinburg is one of the cultural attractions in the city. Roizman himself often conducted tours of the museum, all the famous guests of Yekaterinburg were there. Last year, for example, it was visited by Fedor Konyukhov, and in 2019 by musician Boris Grebenshchikov.

Evgeny Roizman became interested in icon painting as a child – in the early 70s, when he fell into the hands of Soloukhin’s book “Black Boards”. And he began to collect icons more than 40 years ago, when he was only 17 years old.