NOTES ON A LETTER FROM A. PESHKOV (M. GORKY)
October 21, 1920
In February 1919, at the suggestion of
People’s Commissar Krassin, A. Peshkov organized in Petrograd
the “Expert Commission,” whose purpose was to select and appraise items of artistic significance
from the 33 nationalized
warehouses of Petrograd, as well as from abandoned warehouses,
empty apartments, pawnshops, and antique shops.
Items from 33
were selected with the aim of establishing an antiquarian export fund within the Soviet Republic.
By October 1, 1920, the “Expert Commission,” operating with a membership of 80 under the chairmanship of
A. Peshkov, had established two warehouses containing up to 120,000 diverse objects, including:
antique artistic furniture, paintings spanning various epochs, nations, and schools, Russian, Sèvres, Saxon, and other types of porcelain,
bronzes, artistic glassware, ceramics, antique weaponry, artifacts of Eastern art, and much more.
* Soviet Plenipotentiary in Estonia.