RIA Novosti
Serbian collector of Russian art Vladimir Pesic has opened an exhibition of Russian painting in France first in four years
21.05.2026.
04:25
/ RUSSIA/ FRANCE / SERBIA /
BELGRADE, May 21 – RIA Novosti. Serbian collector of Russian art Vladimir Pesic has opened an exhibition of Russian painting in France, the first such exhibition in four years, he told RIA Novosti.
The exhibition opened on Wednesday evening in Paris under the title “The Splendor of Russian Painting of the 19th–20th Centuries. Masterpieces from the Collection of Vladimir Pesic, presents 150 years of Russian art history through 18 works representing 12 movements of Russian art from the 19th and 20th centuries. Among those attending were representatives of the cultural and public life of the French capital, journalists, gallery owners, diplomats from the embassies of Serbia, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Yemen and other countries, as well as UNESCO staff members.
“We reached an agreement with the Russian Orthodox Spiritual and Cultural Center in Paris two years ago to organize an exhibition there, but given the current situation, we postponed it. We have now arranged it to mark the Center’s tenth anniversary. I spent my childhood in Paris and my youth in Russia, and today the French language, like Russian culture, evokes warm feelings in me; it is especially meaningful for me to unite them. This is my first exhibition in Paris and the first exhibition of Russian art here in the last four years,” Pesic said.
According to him, from May 20 to June 30 France is the only place in the world outside Russia where original paintings by Russian masters can be seen.
The last major exhibition of Russian painting in Paris four years ago was “Masterpieces of Modern Art. The Morozov Brothers Collection.”
“The symbol of our exhibition has become ‘Shining Domes,’ painted in the 1920s by Grand Duchess Olga Romanova, sister of Emperor Nicholas II Romanov. It is one of my favorite paintings, and Olga Alexandrovna’s motto was “To be, not to pretend “. We, too, are striving to make a genuine step toward Russian-French mutual understanding and cultural enrichment. The exhibition also features works by Vladimir Tatlin, the founder of Constructivism, as well as paintings by Sergei Senkin, a Suprematist and student of the great Kazimir Malevich, “the collector emphasized.
Over 37 years of work, Vladimir Pesic’s collection has grown to include more than 330 works of painting and applied art by Russian and foreign artists, icons, and unique antique ivory artworks.
The collection has been presented to the public many times at prestigious art exhibitions, as well as at five solo exhibitions in Serbia.