Word: inkombank
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...What a difference a devaluation makes. In Russia's financial crisis of 1998, Vinogradov's Inkombank went under and he plummeted from his position of wealth and power. But the fallout from his crash, Russian art experts warn, may soon get worse. As the ruins of Vinogradov's old empire are hawked in an upcoming bankruptcy sale, one of the world's most famous paintings stands to be sold for a fraction of its value amid whispered allegations of kickbacks and shady private profits...
...soon the Vinogradov Black Square is to be sold in Russia for far less-perhaps as little as $2 million. Last month Alexander Yesin, manager of the bankruptcy sale, confirmed that indeed the painting will be auctioned in Russia. What he failed to say, but sources close to the Inkombank liquidation claim, is that in advance of the auction the bank's entire collection has been appraised at a mere $1.5 million...
...painting's recent history is an apt parable of Russia's post-Soviet decade. In the early 1990s, seeking to burnish their image, the country's richest bankers turned to collecting art. "We encouraged them," says Georgi Nikich, a Moscow art critic who participated in Inkombank's acquisition of the Black Square. "Naively, we thought the works would be safer in their hands." Nikich recalls how he heard of this Black Square when he was running one of Moscow's first commercial art fairs. "A woman called up from Samara, claiming to have a Malevich. Of course, we all laughed...
...suit arrived at the bank carrying a bag. He apologized for being late-he had stopped off to buy fishing line. "But as soon as he opened that bag and unrolled the canvas, we felt the power of Malevich," says Nikich. Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery authenticated the painting and Inkombank bought it, paying a reported...
...Inkombank never got the license. But it was not until Republic National Bank turned the tables on Gurfinkel by filing a suspicious-transactions report on the extraordinary Russian cash flows through its bank to the Bank of New York in the summer of 1998 that anyone at Hamilton's respected house paid attention to what was going on. And it was not until last month, when the New York Times reported that an investigation was in progress, that the U.S. woke up to some ugly truths about Russia. With the bank's cooperation, the Feds are on the trail...