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News of the Ministry
Information in the International Roerich Centre petition is untrue
In regards to collecting signatures organized online for the open letter in defense of the non-governmental Museum named by Nicholas Roerich, a structural unit of the International Centre of the Roerichs (ICR), we pay attention to the following:
The Russian Ministry of Culture has not been taking and is not taking any measures to seize paintings of Nicholas and Svetoslav Roerich stored at the ICR including those purchased for the ICR by Boris Bulochnik.
On the contrary, for many years the ICR has been trying to demand from the Federal property Roerichs’ paintings which are under the operational control of the State Museum of Oriental Art and included in the State part of the Museum Collection of the Russian Federation. Seeking support of its position the ICR refers to Svetoslav Roerich’s testamentary disposition in favor of the Soviet Fund of the Roerichs (SFR) and the letter according to which the ICR is the legal successor of the SFR.
However, the ICR, an organization newly created in 1991 on the initiative of foreign legal entities, is not a legal successor of the Soviet Fund of the Roerichs. Courts of various instances repeatedly denied the ICR’s claims to Roerichs’ paintings placed at the State Museum of Oriental Art.
According to the ICR the Maecenas of this organization was Boris Boulochnik, the chairman of the commercial bank "Master-Bank". By the Bank of Russia order No OD-919 dated 20.11.2013 the Master Bank banking license was revoked. Master Bank didn’t comply with the law on Anti-Money laundering in terms of proper identification of customers. This credit organization has been involved in conducting large-scale questionable transactions.
The position taken by the authors of the open letter is a natural response that is to support enthusiasts concerned about the preservation of culture and allegedly offended by the government. However, one should really be aware that this support means facilitating the handover of Roerichs’ paintings from the State Museum of Oriental Art to unknown persons who can dispose of the part of the Russian Federation peoples’ cultural heritage at their discretion.
