Modern private collections store art treasures that might compete with the ones of the most glorious state museums. At the meeting, several collectors will tell us, how their assembles have been formed, about “hunting masterpieces”, search of artists’ heirs and discoveries made by those who are already forgotten. The conversation will also feature the difference between collecting art in the Soviet and Post-soviet years. 

Mikhail Alshibaya is a famous heart surgeon, but for art-lovers he’s a renowned collector who has the best art by the Soviet nonconformists and other Russian painters of the epoch starting from the 1960-s. Mikhail will tell us the story of his assembly, of how reckless and joyous it was to buy art in the 80-s from young and hungry artists who now are the recognized masters, of how collectors had to search for unknown artworks and revive names hidden in the history. 

Talk Moderator: Sofia Bagdasarova. Art historian, journalist, co-author of the exhibition catalog “Hunters for Art” about the famous collectors.