The ICR asked the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court to reconsider the arrest of the Roerich paintings

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MOSCOW, February 26 The public organization «International Center of the Roerichs» (ICR) asks the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia Irina Podnosova to reconsider the refusal of the courts to cancel the arrest of those belonging to the ICR due to new circumstances works of art, including paintings by the Roerichs, imposed in the Master Bank bankruptcy case, follows from the information in the file of arbitration cases.
The license of Master Bank, which was among the top hundred in the Russian Federation by assets, was revoked by the Central Bank in November 2013, and it was declared bankrupt in January 2014. In February 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court, when considering the issue of bringing four ex-tops of the collapsed bank to subsidiary liability, seized the real estate of the bank's beneficiary Boris Bulochnik, cash and about 500 works of art.

The list of seized property included paintings, drawings, sketches of Nicholas, Svyatoslav and Yuri Roerich, works of other authors, antique and rare items, a collection of bronze sculptures, icons, jewelry, etc. According to lawyer Andrei Drozdov, who represents the ICR in the courts, cultural property transferred to the Center of the Roerichs by private donors, including Bulochnik, many years ago and, in particular, more than 300 paintings, the owner of which is the ICR itself, were seized.

Satisfying the application of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) to seize property, the arbitration courts referred, in particular, to the decision of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow on the seizure of the same property as part of criminal cases against Bulochnik. However, in December 2022, the Moscow City Court overturned the district court’s decision, lifting the seizure of 193 items of significant cultural value.
According to Drozdov, the Moscow City Court came to the conclusion that in reality the property belongs to the Center of the Roerichs, and not to the Baker. On this basis, the ICR, in view of new circumstances, asked to lift the arrest of this property in the Master Bank bankruptcy case, but the arbitration courts of three instances, as well as the judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Galina Kireikova, refused.
As Drozdov stated, “an absurd situation has arisen” when acts of arbitration courts contradict acts of courts of general jurisdiction. “In the present case, there is an obvious miscarriage of justice of a significant and insurmountable nature, and, therefore, the Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has every reason to disagree with the ruling of Judge G.G. Kireikova and to transfer the cassation appeal to the ICR with the case for consideration at the court session of the cassation court instance,» the lawyer believes.