Monday, September 24, 2007

Acting for Mother Russia

Amongst the many angles in the business career of Alisher Usmanov, scourge of bloggers, is that his most recent transaction seems to have required a favour from the Kremlin. This little detail appears in the Wall Street Journal news wire version (subs. req'd) of an AP story which we can't find anywhere else --

Alisher Usmanov said Friday on Ekho Moskvy radio that he paid $72.6 million [for art collection of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich] on the eve of an auction by Sotheby's that was to begin Tuesday in London, forcing the auction house to cancel it.

"I paid the maximum price along with a bonus," Mr. Usmanov said, adding that he had paid a commission to Sotheby's. He said the collection would be brought to Russia next month, and he would hand it over to the state ...

[Russian] Federal Culture Agency chief Mikhail Shvydkoi has said the government agency presented Sotheby's with guarantees that "the transaction would be in the interest of the Russian Federation."


It would be nice if Sotheby's explained why exactly they needed such a letter, and what other information they took into account in evaluating its weight in what was presumably an embarrassing decision to call off an auction a few days before it was due to happen.

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