Karatievich's Muse Left a $2 Billion Collection to Putin. It Turned Out There Were Fakes and Copies

Nina Moleva

Following the death of art critic Nina Moleva in 2024, her will attracted considerable attention, according to which the collection was to pass to the state, represented by the President of Russia. Media reports emerged about an allegedly unique collection valued at up to two billion dollars, which included works by Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Velázquez, Veronese, Rembrandt, Cranach, and other world-renowned masters.

Now, specialists from the Russian Ministry of Culture are conducting a large-scale examination of the collection, which includes about a thousand items: over 200 paintings, sculptures, graphic works, icons, and works by Elie Belyutin himself.

According to preliminary conclusions by experts, no genuine masterpieces from the Renaissance and Baroque eras were found in the collection. Most works turned out to be later copies, predominantly from the 19th century, or heavily restored works of average artistic quality. According to specialists' estimates, the collection contains no truly outstanding work of global significance.

An additional problem was the condition of the exhibits' preservation. For many years, they were kept in an ordinary apartment where cats lived. Experts documented traces of mold, insect damage, and other signs of improper storage conditions. Many items require urgent conservation and restoration.

The history of the collection's origin also raises doubts. For decades, Moleva and Belyutin recounted stories about their ancestors, who allegedly acquired these artworks in pre-revolutionary times. However, modern researchers, after studying archival documents, concluded that a significant part of the family legends is not supported by facts.

According to historians and local lore experts, many biographical details about Moleva's and Belyutin's ancestors changed over time, becoming increasingly fantastical and often contradicting archival materials. As a result, experts suggest that the collection's creation story was largely mythologized.

As early as the 2010s, leading Russian art critics, after reviewing the collection, expressed serious doubts about its artistic and historical value. This is precisely why major state museums refused to accept it as a gift.

The final results of the state examination have not yet been announced. After its completion, it will be decided which items have cultural value and to which institutions they will be transferred for safekeeping. Nina Moleva's wish to preserve the collection as a single whole is unlikely to be fulfilled.

For Belarusians, this story is primarily interesting because Nina Moleva played a significant role in the life of our classic writer Uladzimir Karatkievich.

Nina Moleva was a lecturer at the Higher Literary Courses in Moscow in the late 1950s, when Karatkievich was studying there. She became the prototype for Iryna Horava, the heroine of the novel "Leonids Will Not Return to Earth," with whom the main character was in love.

Both in the novel and in reality, Moleva was married — to the artist Elie Belyutin. His "romancing" with her, Karatkievich confessed to his friend Uladzimir Kalesnik, was platonic.

Nevertheless, he — a romantic! — seriously intended to earn 200,000 rubles by the summer of 1960 (this was at a time when a teacher earned 700 a month) from film scripts and plays, buy a house and a car near Moscow, so that Nina, having left her husband for him, would not live worse.

However, Moleva, of course, did not leave Belyutin and her comfortable apartment on Mayakovsky Square. In Karatkievich, she saw a provincial who "came to me as an unformed person... much of what I said literally turned something over in his soul."

But still, Karatkievich remained friends with her until the end of his life, buying and gifting paintings. Some of them, apparently, are in this scandalous collection.

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