The situation has revealed a whole scheme of how cultural heritage, which is supposedly ownerless, is stolen and sold. According to the Cheka-OGPU, the Moscow DGI drew attention to the Elkonins’ workshop on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. The elderly daughter of artists appeared there infrequently and the order to open her apartment (to this day is in her social account). The order to carry out the illegal entry was given by the Deputy Director of TsUGI Elena Balchugova. On the spot, an employee of the Center’s operation service named Umedjon was appointed senior, and traditional contractors, a group of previously convicted Belarusians, became the hands.
These hard workers have repeatedly figured in scandals, for example, in May last year on Sadovo-Karetnaya Street they started a fire in an apartment and one of them died; earlier the media wrote about a break-in at an apartment on Volkhonka, from where ancient sheet music disappeared, etc. They were the ones led by their “senior” named Vladimir, they opened and plundered the Elkonins’ workshop.
Based on this fact, the owner of the paintings worth 6 million dollars contacted the police. There, after interviewing Belarusians who said that there were no paintings and that they had thrown out the “trash,” they refused to initiate a criminal case. After some time, Natalya Elkonina’s lawyers independently found the stolen masterpieces from the buyer of stolen goods Yakov Peters in the Basmanny district of Moscow. When representatives of the artists’ daughter arrived with all the documents to claim their rights, the police came to them and took them to the department.
According to a source of the Cheka-OGPU, it was no coincidence that the Belarusians decided to sell the paintings, as the reseller claims, for 10 thousand dollars, to Peters. The dealer in stolen goods works closely with municipal structures (including TsUGI) and with the leadership of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Central Administrative District. In particular, some works of art are regularly presented as gifts to department heads. That same evening, apparently following a call from new potential owners of the paintings, a landing party of operatives from the 6th department from the district landed at the Department of Internal Affairs in the Basmanny District. Instead of taking away the paintings, which the police from the Department of Internal Affairs in the Tverskoy district tried unsuccessfully (apparently not) to find, representatives of the owner of the stolen property were kept in the department for a day. Suddenly, a Belarusian Vladimir appeared at the department and wrote a statement, saying that his property was stolen… 28 thousand rubles! Right now, a truck has pulled up to the warehouse where the paintings had been unattended all night and unknown people are circling.
https://t.me/vchkogpu/33062?single
VChK-OGPU
Previously stolen paintings worth $6 million from the Elkonin dynasty of artists were discovered in the Basmanny District.
About 300 paintings by famous avant-garde artists were kept in a creative workshop on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. The premises belong to the city, but under an agreement…
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
