Engelina S. Smirnova

Since lifting the tacit ban on the study of many pages of Soviet history, including circumstances surrounding the sale of artworks from the USSR to the West in the 1920s and early 1930s, Russian publications have frequently reproduced a photograph of a certain antique shop situated either in Moscow (most likely) or Leningrad. On it can be seen a large number of icons intended for sale. Some of them, but by no means all, have subsequently been located, including an icon of Saint Nicholas. This icon, with its memorable composition, disappeared from the orbit of specialists and its fate remained unknown until 2009 when it resurfaced on the art market. Now in London, the 16th-century icon is known only to a small number of specialists.

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