|
|
| PETERSBURG. THE CITY ON SWAMP, ABOVE SWAMP OR ON IT? Sergey Timofeyev |
| COLLECTING IS ALWAYS DELIGHT Alevtina Ryabinina I met Nikita Dmitriyevich Lobanov-Rostovsky, a direct descendant of the first Russian royal dynasty, the Ryurikovichi, at his house on Kildare Terrace in Notting Hill, one of London's currently most fashionable districts. The house lies a leisurely ten-minute walk from Kensington Palace, still home to members of the British royal family. Also adjacent is the famous embassy district that concentrates virtually the cream of the world's diplomats, as is Hyde Park and the Albert Hall. Nikita Lobanov is known to the world not only because he belongs to the nobility and occupies prestigious posts at two of America's biggest banks and the diamond company De Beers, but mainly because he has a unique collection of Russian theatrical art, and he himself is regarded as the foremost specialist in this field. For a long time, the prince served as advisor to the Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses and was on the board of the Association of Theatre Museums in London. But for two years now he has been, as he himself puts it, an ordinary English pensioner. However, such an assertion is not entirely true. Lobanov is a "life member" of the Metropolitan Museum's benevolent organisation, the San Francisco Fine Arts Council and the Los Angeles Institute of Modern Russian Culture. With the support of the Moscow municipal authority, he has recently established the Princes Lobanov-Rostovsky Museum in Filevsky Park, with a permanent exhibition reflecting the history of the Russian state through the life stories of the prince's famous ancestors and documentary material. His name is connected not only with Moscow. Still standing in the centre of St Petersburg is the Lobanov-Rostovsky Palace, built, like St Isaac's Cathedral, by the renowned Montferrand. Both this exhibition and the prince's London house have portraits of his grandfathers, by Argunov, brought over from Russia by Nikita Lobanov's grandfather. |
| A CONVERSATION OVER LUNCH IN THE RESTAURANT OF THE INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL IN PARIS, 15 NOVEMBER 1981 Nikita D. Lobanov-Rostovsky Participants in the conversation: John E. Bowlt (arrived from Texas), Nikolay Benois (arrived from Milan) and Nikita D. Lobanov-Rostovsky (arrived from London) Persons mentioned in the conversation: Alexander Benois (famous artist, art historian and critic), Nikolay Benois (his son, also an artist), Anna Alexandrovna (his daughter), Yelena Alexandrovna (his youngest daughter, an artist), Zinaida Serebryakova (artist belonging to Mir iskusstva), Picasso (painter of "Guernica", 1937 etc.), Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky (prince, collector living in London), John E. Bowlt (American professor). |
