In the USA, despite the protests of Russia sell old Russian icons – BBC News

Almost thirty Russian icons belonging to the ex-US ambassador to Moscow Laurence Steinhardt, put up for sale in Los Angeles. According to the auction house Bonhams catalog most of them date back to the X century, several exhibits much older. Total for auction 23 lots.

The Russian authorities oppose the auction. According to the representative of the Russian Embassy in the United States, a collection of Steinhardt has attracted the attention of American Jewish organizations, who are searching the property of Holocaust victims in 2006. According to them, in 87 icons have “gaps in origin.” After the sale of the collection in April 2014 for a million dollars, she became interested in specialists from Russia.

Diplomats and lawyers believe that the icons were removed from the Soviet Union illegally. Steinhardt served as ambassador from 1939 to 1942. Meanwhile, in 1938 the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs warned the foreign missions of the restrictions on the export of icons of cultural value. Categorical ban applied to images, written earlier in 1800.

The Russian side has appealed to the heirs of Steinhardt and the organizers of the auction with the requirement to produce documents on items allegedly bought in commission shops. Refers to checks or receipts for purchase and information about the former owners. In addition, you must provide the customs permit for the export of the USSR and the Declaration on importation into the United States. Failure of the American side motivated lack of reasons for doubt. About how from Russia to the United States export of antiques, written a lot of books.

Russian Ministry of Culture, in turn, offered to remove lots from the auction and discuss their future, because Moscow wants to return the rest of the collection and transfer it to Russian Orthodox Church. In response, the Ministry of auction organizers offered to buy out the exhibits. It is reported that the State Department referred the case to the United States in a special unit of the FBI to combat illegal trafficking in cultural property. The answer of this department are still not enrolled, according to ITAR-TASS.

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Almost thirty Russian icons belonging to the ex-US ambassador to Moscow Laurence Steinhardt, put up for sale in Los Angeles. Some of the icons date back to the X century, several exhibits much older. Total for auction 23 lots.