Pyotr Aven Picks Art Every Time
After being raised in a communal apartment where his family all lived together in a single room and shared a bathroom and kitchen with eight other families, Pyotr Aven went on to achieve great success and massive wealth. But while most Russian billionaires spend their wealth luxurious yachts, private planes and lavish parties, this particular oligarch has a different idea of what true indulgence is.
Surrounded by Art
Pyotr Aven and his family reside in a neo-Palladian home with walls that are covered with artworks. The extraordinary range of paintings feature some of the most prominent artists of the late 19th and early 20th century and include works by Kandinsky, Larionov and Goncharova. Aven has chosen to spend his money on art and has been building up his collection alongside his business ventures for decades.
The Beginning of a Lifelong Passion
According to Aven, his interest in art stems from a childhood of not having paintings around. He says that collecting art makes him happy because he finds pleasure in arranging things into a particular order. He even enjoys stacking books on shelves. Aven claims that all his money goes into art and that he has never bought a yacht or a plane.
The collector made his very first acquisition in 1993 when he bought a still life from the 1920s by the artist Pavel Kuznetsov for US$5,000. Since then, Aven has been tracking down artworks through auctions, private collections or even from descendants of artists.
An Exceptional Collection
Pyotr Aven’s extensive art collection includes so much more than just paintings. In the basement of his Surrey home, the proud collector displays a substantial assortment of Soviet porcelain in cupboards lining the walls. Included are pieces from 1917 until around 1941. Aven finds the porcelain fascinating because the mostly one-off pieces are more original than many of the paintings of the same era. While Russian painters found inspiration in the works of Matisse and Cézanne,
Russian porcelain is original.
In Aven’s upstairs bathroom he displays an intimate range of female nudes sketched by Vladimir Lebedev in the 1930s, an unexpected show of tolerance by the authorities at the time. The extensive art collection extends to the outside of the Surrey home where sprawling green lawns are home to several large sculptures including ‘Sitting Couple’ by Lynn Chadwick, a giant bear rearing upright, a reclining figure resting on a plinth, mother and daughter spiders and many more. This ostentatious display contrasts Aven’s office where fewer works of art are displayed but photographs of him hunting bears with the Russian president and with his business partner German Khan can be seen.
Pick One
When asked which one of his many, many works of art is his favourite, Aven chooses a piece by Marc Chagall named ‘Les maisonettes rouges.’ According to Aven, the painting is both Russian and an embodiment of the Jewish attitude to life – that of eternal movement.