Businessman Andrey Filatov’s Art Russe Foundation, which preserves and collects Soviet-era art, had said that he is willing to purchase depictions of Theodore Roosevelt and settler Alexander Baranov, found in New York and Alaska respectively, as both men left a “positive mark” in Russia’s history.
According to Forbes, Ukrainian-born Filatov made his fortune in the transport and ports industries, which last year estimated his net worth at $1.1 billion. The billionaire founded the investment firm Tuloma in 2013 and co-owns private railway operator Globaltrans.
The 48-year-old is also known as a chess player and serves as president of Russia’s chess federation.
In 2012, Filatov founded Art Russe Foundation in order to collect Russian art — primarily from the Soviet era (1917 to 1991) — which it then loans out to museums and galleries
“When the Soviet Union collapsed, a huge amount of great artworks were taken out of the country to the west and elsewhere,” Filatov said in a CNN report. “My task is to buy these artworks and show them to people.”
Art Russe Foundation confirmed that it has written to Sitka’s City Hall, the American Museum of Natural History, and unspecified “New York City authorities” to express its interest in the two statues.
The spokesperson did not say how much had — or would be — offered, instead stating that the artworks’ “monetary value is subject to negotiation.”
The two controversial statues are among several statues across the country facing calls to be pulled down after Black Lives Matter protests sparked discussions about the memorialization of various historical figures.
Filatov’s Art Russe Foundation hopes to bring them to St. Petersburg in the name of preserving “cultural and historical heritage.”
“We have deep respect and appreciation for individuals who contributed to the development of Russia and were associated with the history of our country,” said an Art Russe Foundation spokesperson in a written statement.
“Both the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, and the governor of Russian settlements in North America, Alexander Baranov, were statesmen who left their positive mark in Russia’s history. We, therefore, see the need to preserve their memory for future generations.”
The Roosevelt statue currently found in front of the American Museum of Natural History in New York has long faced vandalism and calls for its removal due to its depiction of a Native American man and a Black man stood at the feet of the US president.
Roosevelt’s place in Russian history came from his role brokering a treaty between Russia and Japan in 1904, bringing the countries’ year-and-a-half-long war to an end. His role in the deal, known as the Treaty of Portsmouth had won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.
Meanwhile, Alexander Baranov was a merchant who once governed Russian America — the parts of North America owned by Russia before they were sold to the United States in the so-called Alaska Purchase. Baranov’s bronze sculpture has stood in the city of Sitka since 1989, though Native American communities there have led calls for it to be removed.
A petition calling for Baranov statue removal was signed by more than 2,500 people, and describes him as a “colonist who came to Sitka, Alaska, without an invitation, to enrich himself, his company and his country,” and accuses him of leading “the armed assault on the local Tlingit people.”