Russian Businesswoman Opens Private Gallery

MOSCOW—Following a young trend in Moscow, Marina Mamontova, chairman of the board of directors at Moskapstroi, a civil engineering company, is opening an art gallery today to show her private collection, reports Bloomberg.

Mamontova began collecting late-19th- and early 20th-century Russian paintings with her husband, Valerye, in the early 1990s and now owns more than 250. The first exhibition at Mamontov Gallery, which does not have an end date, will feature 40 works from their collection, and Mamontova says she hopes other collectors will show in the 200-square-meter gallery in the future. The space will also function as a cultural center, organizing art history lectures, contemporary art exhibitions, and concerts of early 20th-century Russian music.

Mamontova follows fellow wealthy Russian collectors Igor Markin, who opened Russia's first private museum for postwar art in June, and the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, which opened Russia's first private contemporary-art Kunsthalle in February. "Russian art of the first half of the 20th century is still not well known, and the works sold at auction tend to disappear into private collections and are never seen again," said Mamontova. "I want the public to have a chance to see these works, and to better appreciate this period of art."