It looked like a genuine scandal: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, when his predecessor Viktor Yanukovych was in power, presenting the luxury-loving head of state with an expensive painting in the hope of landing a plum position in government.
But the claim, made
in a Facebook post on Sept. 14 by Andriy Portnov, a former adviser and former
head of Yanukovych’s Presidential Administration, looks to have been a fake –
as the painting may have been as well, if indeed it was ever even given as a
present.
Portnov alleged
that Poroshenko, toadying up to the runaway former president on his birthday in
2012, presented Yanukovych with “Constantinople at Dawn,” a masterpiece by
Russian Romantic-era painter Ivan Ayvasovsky, which Portnov said was worth $1.8
million.
But the original
painting, which last went up for auction in 2007 at international fine arts
brokers Sotheby’s in New York, was never actually sold and is still listed in
the company’s catalogue as lot 316.
According to
Portnov, from 2010 to 2013 Poroshenko curried favor with Yanukovych by giving
him a range of expensive, luxury presents.
“Ukrainian
politicians know that at that time Poroshenko wanted to become Kyiv’s mayor or
the head of one of the ministries. So he did his best to toady up to the so-called
usurper (Yanukovych),” Portnov wrote.
Portnov said guests
at Yanukovych’s birthday party in 2012 were surprised when Poroshenko presented
the then president with the original Ayvasovsky, which, according to Portnov
was sold for $1.8 million in 2007 at a Sotheby’s auction. “Petro bought it
through an intermediary – the Art-Capital gallery, based in Kyiv,” wrote
Portnov.
But Matthew Floris,
a spokesperson for Sotheby’s, told the Kyiv Post
that the painting failed to find a buyer in 2007. “This work was offered at auction in New York. The
painting did not find a buyer and was left unsold. If a work is sold, the
website lists the price,” Floris said.
The
listing for the painting gives a price estimate of $2-3 million, but no sale
price.
Portnov told the Kyiv
Post that he doesn’t know where the painting is now. “Believe me, the former
president got Ayvasovsky paintings as presents many times,” Portnov said.
“Maybe Poroshenko presented him a copy, or
another Ayvasovsky.”
Yanukovych
was known to be a fan of expensive art. After fleeing power on Feb. 22, 2014
and settling in Russia, security camera footage from Yanukovych’s residence
emerged showing several high-priced original paintings and other expensive
pieces of art being rushed out of the house.
The
parts of Yanukovych’s huge collection that were left behind in Ukraine went on
display at the National Art Museum of Ukraine during the Codex of Mezhyhirya exhibition from April to July 2014.
Olena Goncharuk, the
spokesperson of the National
Art Museum of Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post that the whereabouts of any Ayvasovsky masterpieces that Yanukovych may have owned are
unknown.
“All the exhibits
were confiscated by the General Prosecutor’s Office. But there was no
Ayvasovsky among them. However, I saw one of his masterpieces being evacuated
from the Honka (as Yanukovych’s residence was named) on one of those videos
from the security cameras,” Goncharuk said.
Kyiv Post writer Veronika Melkozerova can be
reached at [email protected]
