Voltaire & Catherine the Great correspondence sold

[[size=16]Voltaire and Catherine the Great: a pair of unlikely pen-pals [/size]]

[size=16]Voltaire and Catherine the Great: a pair of unlikely pen-pals [/size]

By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
 
Published: 02 June 2006
 
A unique set of correspondence between the Russian Empress Catherine the Great and the French philosopher Voltaire has been bought by an unknown Russian patriot "for the good of the country". The extravagant gesture, at a Sotheby's auction in Paris, set a new record for the price anyone has paid for 18th-century correspondence - in this case £400,000 for 26 letters.

The letters had been expected to be sold for half of that sum but became the object of a fierce bidding war between the mystery buyer and a Russian businessman based in America.

In Russia, the purchase is being compared to the acquisition in 2004 of nine Fabergé eggs by the oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, a grand gesture that brought back part of Russia's fabulous cultural legacy to the Rodina or Motherland. The 26 letters may not have had the eye-watering £60m price tag that the gem-encrusted eggs boasted, but their rarity combined with speculation about the identity of their buyer has ensured a stir of equal proportions.

"Eggs, letters - what's next?" asked the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, discussing the growing trend to procure cultural treasures for the good of Russia, a gesture that tends to endear the patriot in question to the Kremlin and public opinion alike. The paper suggested that the letters had been bought on the orders of a senior government official but it was unclear whether the money used to buy them was his own or the state's.

Interest in the collection is considerable because Catherine the Great, a German-born princess, is Russia's most famous female ruler, and Voltaire one of France's pre-eminent Enlightenment philosophers. They corresponded for 15 years until Voltaire's death, and though they never met became firm friends and mutual admirers. Voltaire called Catherine "The Star of the North" and the "Semiramis of Russia" in a reference to a legendary Queen of Babylon.

Bought by a Moscow-based art dealer on behalf of the unknown philanthropist, the letters used to belong to the Rothschild family and amount to a quarter of the pair's correspondence. Their contents have never been published, and are something that many of the world's greatest museums would gladly display. The remaining letters between Catherine the Great and Voltaire are stored in the state archive in Moscow and in the National Library in Paris.

Alexander Khochinsky, the Russian art dealer who bought the letters on behalf of the mystery buyer, said he had done so for Russia's sake but denied the buyer was an oligarch.

"The idea is very patriotic," he said. "The purchase is linked with those genuine thoughts in mind. The letters will return to Russia." The letters date from 1768 to 1777, and in some of them Voltaire signs himself off as "the old hermit" or simply as "V". The two friends discuss Catherine's foreign policy, including the partition of Poland and her first war with the Ottoman Empire in 1768-74. In the letters, Voltaire exercises his famous wit to refer to the Ottoman ruler, Mustafa III, as "fat and ignorant".

[size=10]Thanks for this wonderful story Helen! [/size][/color]

[How Voltaire praised the 'enlightened despot' Catherine the Great Satirist's heartfelt letters to the woman he admired are bought for Russia]

A Related Story...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,1788534,00.html

How Voltaire praised the 'enlightened despot' Catherine the Great

Satirist's heartfelt letters to the woman he admired are bought for Russia

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Friday June 2, 2006
The Guardian

They are the heartfelt correspondence from the great acerbic wit of the European Enlightenment to the last Russian empress, in which he praises her authoritarian style and mocks the extravagances of her French counterparts.
For years, the letters from Voltaire to Catherine the Great have been hidden away in a private collection - the contents a mystery. But now, courtesy of a Moscow art dealer, they will be returned to Russia, where their musings and advice may provide solace to the current Kremlin resident, Vladimir Putin, himself accused by critics of an authoritarian style.

Alexander Khochinsky, a Russian art dealer, paid a record €583,200 (£400,000) in Paris for the 26 letters written by the French satirist to Catherine II. Yesterday, he refused to say on whose behalf he had bought the archive. He said: "I cannot say the name of the person, but they are very important and in Russia." He added that the purchaser was not one of Russia's oligarchs. "I did a lot of work to get the archive at the best conditions and price," he said.
The Kremlin has recently promoted the return to Moscow of valuable artefacts from Russia's history, many of which were lost to foreign collectors during the the last century. The oligarch Viktor Vekselberg paid a reported $100m (£54m) in 2004 for the Fabergé eggs which he then returned to Russia.

Mr Khochinsky said he had not read the letters, dated 1768 to 1777, but thought they contained information that would help the "European direction of Russia".

Thomas Bompard, a manuscript expert at Sotheby's in Paris who looked after the archive, said: "Voltaire and Catherine never met, but the relationship between these great characters of the 18th century was conducted through these letters."

The most telling comments in the letter for today's Russia refer to Catherine's governing style. Mr Bompard said Voltaire, who lambasted the French monarchy during the Enlightenment for its excesses, approved of her role as an "enlightened despot".

Catherine, who ruled Russia for three decades until her death in 1796, viewed herself a patron of the arts and liberty, and a "philosopher on the throne", but has been criticised for the little she did for the millions of peasants in her empire.

Voltaire supported her military endeavours, including her war against the Turks. Mr Bompard said that after Louis XVI's wedding to Marie Antoinette, the monarch, soon to be deposed by the French revolution, celebrated by setting off hundreds of fireworks which apparently killed many bystanders. "He wrote that more people were probably killed by the fireworks than by Catherine's war against the Turks," said Mr Bompard.

He described the letters not as works of diplomatic politesse, but as being "intimate". He said: "In Voltaire's bedroom there was a portrait of Catherine in front of his bed."

Star of the North

Catherine II the Great was born Sophie Augusta Fredericka in 1729, a German princess who was sent to Russia in a diplomatic Prussian intrigue and grew more popular than the man she married, the Grand Duke Peter - later Peter III. After his death she became empress, extending the Russian empire south and westwards. She considered herself a philosopher, and the arts flourished. The Hermitage museum, St Petersburg, started as her collection. She corresponded with the great minds of her day, including Voltaire, who called her "the Star of the North".

[Dealer buys Voltaire letters for mystery Russian]

and another...

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=809322006

Dealer buys Voltaire letters for mystery Russian

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian art dealer bought 26 letters written by French philosopher and satirist Voltaire to Catherine the Great for a mystery buyer, a local paper reported on Thursday.

Alexander Khochinsky, a Moscow art dealer, told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper that he bought the letters for 583,200 euros (399,670 pounds) at a Sotheby's auction in Paris.

He declined to comment when asked if he had bought the letters at the request of a Russian state official, the paper said. But he said the letters would be returned to Russia.

Born as an obscure German princess, Catherine (1729-1796) draped herself in the silks of the Enlightenment while emperor of Russia. She corresponded for years with Voltaire, who is seen as one of the principal thinkers of the Enlightenment.

Khochinsky, who faced tough competition at bidding from an unknown collector in the United States, said the letters contained previously unstudied texts.

"The letters contain texts completely unknown to researchers," Khochinsky told the paper. "They have been published nowhere."

Voltaire, a famous wit who often offended the influential with his satire, won the respect of Catherine, who cultivated his fame inside Russia.

Russian businessmen, many of whom made fortunes in the chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, have been buying up treasures around the world, often returning them to Russia to the approval of the Kremlin.

Oil and metals tycoon Viktor Vekselberg paid millions of dollars for a collection of Faberge eggs, which he returned to Russia in 2004 and put on exhibition.

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Thanks, Dominic. I wonder who the "mystery Russian" is  .

Of course they belong in Russia but I do miss seeing those Faberge Eggs for free at the Forbes Magazine Collection in NYC.
I used to go often to see them.

Of course they belong in Russia but I do miss seeing those Faberge Eggs for free at the Forbes Magazine Collection in NYC.
I used to go often to see them.

[size=10]Perhaps your next expedition should be to Russia itself, where you can admire the Faberge eggs in Moscow and examine the current Voltaire collection at the National Library in St. Petersburg?[/size][/color]  

YES!
One visit to Saint Petersburg and Moscow was not enough!