Arsenal oligarch Alisher Usmanov pays more than £20m for Mstislav Rostropovich art collection

First Arsenal, now art। The Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov bought the entire collection of the late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich before it was due to be auctioned in London today.

The oligarch, who paid “substantially more” than the £20 million estimate, said that he would present the 450 artworks to the Russian state to keep the collection intact। “When I knew that this collection would be sold at auction, I felt the need to try to preserve the collection in its entirety,” he told Russian television.

The purchase resulted in Sotheby’s cancelling the planned two-day sale।

Mr Usmanov is Russia’s 18th-richest man and only last month bought a 14।6 per cent stake in Arsenal for £75 million from David Dein, the club’s former vice-chairman.

Rostropovich’s widow, the opera star Galina Vishnevskaya told Ekho Moskvy radio that she hoped the works would be put on display in St Petersburg। She put the collection up for sale because of the prohibitive security and insurance costs of keeping them at her homes in Paris and London. “It is especially meaningful for our family that the new owner will bring it to Russia,” said the family in a statement.

Sotheby’s described the paintings, porcelain and glassware as among the most distinguished it had ever handled and “one of the most important collections of Russian art in private hands”। It includes Faces of Russians, by Boris Grigoriev, which some critics believe is Russia’s most important postrevolutionary painting, and 22 works by the portrait artist Ilya Repin.

Rostropovich, who died in April, aged 80, and is regarded as the greatest cellist of the 20th century, collected the pieces over 30 years। They range in value from £150 to £2 million.

Mr Usmanov, 53, is a Ukrainian-born metals and mining mogul and is worth an estimated $5।5 billion (£2.74 billion). He is also close to the Kremlin and may been have spurred on by the Government’s recent plea to Russia’s oligarchs to demonstrate their patriotism by buying important cultural treasures for the nation.

The head of Russia’s federal culture agency, Mikhail Shvydkoi, welcomed the purchase, saying that “for Russian culture and Russia as a whole, all things relating to the name of Mstislav Rostropovich are invaluable”।

Although Rostropovich was a fierce critic of Soviet repression and fled to the West with his wife to escape persecution, his death was described by President Putin as “a huge loss for Russian culture”। Mr Putin even hosted a Kremlin banquet to mark the musician’s 80th birthday in March and presented him with the Order for Services to the Fatherland first class, Russia’s highest honour.

Mr Usmanov has been on somewhat of spending spree recently। He paid an estimated $3 million this month for the rights to a collection of classic Soviet-era cartoons, which he donated to a new state television channel Mr Putin set up for children. There is also speculation that he is preparing a takeover bid for Arsenal.

Sotheby’s said that it was “highly unusual” for one buyer to scoop up an entire collection of this quality. However, it is not unprecedented. Another tycoon, Viktor Vekselberg, paid about $90 million in 2004 to return to Russia Faberge eggs owned by the late US businessman Malcolm Forbes. He also spent $1 million to sponsor the return of historic church bells from Harvard University to the Danilov monastery this summer.