While in France the Musée Picasso prepares to issue officially a new edition of bronze sculptures by the late artist, in Russia a case is raging over the sale of forged casts of works by Ernst Neizvestny and their display at the Tretyakov Gallery

This case has been dragging on since May, and I deliberately refrained from writing about it. In the first place, it seemed to me that for many years now everyone with even the slightest connection to art collecting and the life of Russian auctions has known that our market is quite simply swamped with non-original sculptures and edition graphics by Neizvestny. Not being a specialist in the field, it would never have occurred to me to buy this particular artist, just as, say, Zverev or Vladimir Yakovlev. In the second place, the details of the affair remained so murky and obscure that there was nothing substantive to say.

But now, half a year on, I decided to read up on the status of the proceedings, and I shall refer to a piece by The Art Newspaper Russia, which reports that the investigation has brought charges against the founder of a gallery and the director of an auction house in the case of forged works by Neizvestny, although until recently both women featured in the case as victims. They are now accused of fraud on an especially large scale and of unlawful use of copyright objects. A former naval officer has also turned out to be mixed up in the case. The article speaks of the production of no fewer than three dozen sculptures and paintings by Neizvestny without the consent of the rights holders, and of the sale of these works to collectors in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, the Moscow and Murmansk regions, and abroad.

Some of the forged works appeared at the exhibition "The Age of Neizvestny. For the Artist's 100th Anniversary", held at the New Tretyakov Gallery from 16 December 2025 to 12 May 2026