Malaga’s Russian Museum exhibits art banned by the Kremlin and collected by an Embassy driver

The paintings hold almost as much history as the collector who bought and recovered them. Dating back to the first half of the 20th century, the works depict revolutionary Russian avant-garde art. Paradoxically, this was banned by the Kremlin. In defiance of authority, the driver for the Greek Embassy in Moscow, George Costakis (1913-1990), collected works by Malevich, Popova, Drevin and more. He was told that he was hoarding “useless garbage”. And yet he salvaged 3,000 pieces which he kept in his three-room flat. The largest private collection of avant-garde art from the USSR is now being displayed at Malaga’s Russian Museum until next April.

“His is a unique case in the history of modern art, as many said he was crazy and collected useless things. And that is why the world was so surprised when the Guggenheim in New York exhibited his collection in 1981, and discovered this chapter in the history of world art which had been hidden away, and preserved thanks to George Costakis,” explained Maria Tsantsanoglou, curator of the exhibition ‘Utopía y Vanguardia’. Tsantsanoglou says that Costakis “saved from oblivion and destruction” much of the heritage of 20th-century Russian art, which was heavily repressed by Soviet policy.

Both Francisco de la Torre, Mayor of Malaga, and Aliki Costakis, George Costakis’ daughter, presided over the exhibition’s opening. “My father did not only choose famous names, such as Malevich. He collected everything, starting with the works of women and victims of reprisals,” said Aliki, who recalls that her father’s collection began after the Second Civil War, when he saw an avant-garde piece by Olga Rozanova unlike anything he had seen before.

Saviour of heritage

When the Soviet regime came to power, many of the art collections belonging to noble or bourgeois families were sold at bargain prices to members of the diplomatic corps in Moscow. This was the environment in which George Costakis, who drove his clients to visit art dealers, learned to appreciate art.

“Some works were hidden or banned, so he was almost doing detective work,” says his daughter, adding that her father defied the regime’s rules by buying pieces that nobody wanted, but in which he saw great artistic value. In this way, the driver made his way up the diplomatic ladder. At the same time, he was misunderstood by many. “Among Moscow collectors, I have got a rather unflattering nickname: the eccentric Greek ‘who buys useless garbage’,” wrote George Costakis. Far from this, he was a visionary who became the greatest specialist in Russian avant-garde art.

Photograph with Kennedy

Over time, his flat became an unofficial museum of modern art, visited by leaders and politicians who visited Moscow. These included Senator Edward Kennedy, whose portrait with the ‘eccentric Greek’ now hangs in the Russian Museum. This room in the exhibition reproduces the home in which he displayed his 3,000 collected works, and even includes furniture from the period.

An impressive 470 pieces from Costakis’ collection are displayed in the permanent exhibition space at Malaga’s Russian Museum. These include works by Kazimir Malevich, Liubov Popova, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Elma Guro, Olga Rozanova, Ivan Kliun, Gustav Klucis, Mikhail Larionov and Pavel Filonov, to name a few. Utopía y Vanguardia. Arte Ruso en la Colección Costakis (Utopia and the Avant-garde. Russian Art in the Costakis Collection) also features more than a hundred objects and books that provide an exhaustive insight into the development of the Russian avant-garde in the 20th century.

Francisco de la Torre noted that it has been two years since the museum’s Russian artwork was transported back to St Petersburg, following EU sanctions on Russia for the war on Ukraine. He emphasised that the Russian Museum survives thanks to the exhibition of private collections such as George Costakis’. Although the collection is set to remain in Malaga for ten months, the mayor encouraged the Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection (MOMus) to extend the exhibition. The Russian Museum hopes its future will be clearer once the war in Ukraine ends. It has not had its own collection since the conflict began.