The return of the painting V.A. Golynsky "Fishing", missing during the Great Patriotic War

On October 6 at 12. 00 a solemn event will be held at the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts on the occasion of the return to the museum collection of the painting by A. A. Golynsky “Fishing”, which disappeared during the Great Patriotic War.

In June 2016 in Moscow at the Scientific Research Independent Expertise named after P.I. Tretyakova (NINE) was an examination of the paintings of an unknown author. The expert canvas was stored for a long time in a private collection abroad, and was subsequently put up by the owners at one of the European auctions, where it was acquired by Russian collector Mikhail Vadimovich Tsapkin.

NINE experts conducted a comprehensive examination of the picture, stylistic, radiographic, technical and technological and bio-bibliographic examinations were made. As a result, it was found that the work was created in the last quarter of the 19th century and belongs to the brush of the Russian artist Vasily Andreyevich Golynsky (1854-1904).

A graduate of the Imperial Academy of Arts V.A. Golynsky in the 1880s repeatedly turned to stories from the life of village children. The master’s works capturing peasant children at work in the field, picking mushrooms, playing games or fishing, were exhibited at many exhibitions. Currently, genre paintings by V. A. Golynsky are presented in collections of Russian art museums, as well as in domestic and foreign private collections.

Along with the establishment of authorship of the picture, the identification of old inscriptions and markings identified on the slats of the stretcher was carried out. It was determined that the inventory number found corresponds to the painting by V. A. Golynsky “Fishing”, which disappeared from the Kaluga Regional Art Museum during the German occupation of the city. The data on the painting were included in the multi-volume “Consolidated catalog of cultural property stolen and lost during the Second World War,” published since 1999 at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. A separate volume is dedicated to the Kaluga Regional Art Museum in the publication (15th volume, author-compiler - researcher at the Museum I.V. Guzhova).

After clarifying such circumstances, the owner of the painting decided to return the work free of charge to the collection of the Kaluga Regional Art Museum. With the active assistance of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and its authorized units (Department of Cultural Heritage and the Directorate of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation), a ceremony of the solemn transfer of the painting was organized. On September 28, at the collegium of the Ministry, Mikhail Vadimovich Tsapkin, in the presence of the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Rostislavovich Medinsky, handed over to the representatives of our Museum the once lost canvas.

The acquisition of an artwork that disappeared during the Nazi occupation is a major event in the cultural life of the entire Kaluga region. It is a matter of restoring historical justice in relation to cultural heritage, for the damage done to the Kaluga Regional Art Museum from October 13 to December 30, 1941 was enormous. The museum lost 727 units of cultural property, effectively losing one third of its collection. A whole layer of national treasure was irretrievably lost. And it’s all the more joyful to realize that happy finds do happen. I would like to express the hope that the acquisition of the painting by V. A. Golynsky “Fishing”, which rightfully belongs to the museum, is only the first sign in the long and difficult history of the return of artistic treasures “home”.

Museum address: Kaluga, st. Lenin, 104

The museum is open from 10.00 to 18.00; on Saturday from 11.00 to 19.00; Monday is a day off.