Soviet art exports to German in the interwar period

After the Russian Revolution, the Soviet government engaged in a massive and sustained effort to confiscate unprecedented amounts of Russian art and antiquities within its borders. Enormous treasures collected by private owners such as the Romanovs prior to 1917, including paintings, drawings, lithographs, icons, jewelry, furniture, porcelain, books, suddenly became an export commodity, capable of earning hard currency in the West and financing the domestic industrialization programs set forth in the First Five Year Plan. As early as 1921 the Kremlin began establishing contacts with Berlin, which soon became the center of the Soviet art sales. German art dealers, notably Rudolph Lepke's firm, essentially secured a monopoly on the Leningrad art market, where they selected objets d'art primarily from the Tsarist residences. Until the mid-1930s they auctioned off valuables mainly in Berlin and Leipzig and conducted transactions with other clients at home and abroad. In spite of emigre lawsuits, the overall economic depression and growing competition from the American art market, the ventures seem to have been profitable for the German partners involved. The article gives a preliminary account of the exports to Berlin based on sources from the Russian Economic Archive, Moscow, contemporary German art journals and the existing literature. For a more accurate reconstruction of this neglected chapter in history, more research should be carried out in private and public archives in Russia as well as in Germany.