Nina Moleva He was a respected figure in Russian artistic circles. She was a historian, journalist and art critic, and her work contributed preservation of Russian art. She was the author of 120 books about Russian artists and was passionate about history.

She was the widow of the mysterious collector Ilya Belyutin, known as “Stalin’s Spy”amassing a significant body of work, including religious paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries, valued at approximately €1.8 billion.

According to Molev, this is a family collection inherited from their husband’s grandfather, an influential artist during the time of the kings.

The Second World War

Some researchers have questioned this explanation since no documents or files were found.

In 2015, an investigation conducted Moscow Times He stated that in fact these works were taken from Europe during World War II Belyutin himself, the husband of Nina Moleva, who worked for KGBRussian intelligence services.

Nina Moleva’s haul included about a thousand works, including paintings and sculptures, by Rembrandt, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Velazquezamong other masters preserved in his small Moscow apartment.

Having no children, Moleva was thinking of passing on his collection as an inheritance. The Pushkin Museum rejected the work due to the lack of a certificate of provenance and because many of the works were copies.