The Russian artist, critic, and writer Nina Muliava has passed away at the age of 98 and bequeathed to Russian President Vladimir Putin a collection of artwork valued at over $2 billion. A statement from the Russian Ministry of Culture reported that Muliava, a member of the Union of Artists and the Union of Writers of Russia, died on the 11th of this month, but her passing was not discovered until yesterday. The ministry expressed its condolences by stating: "Blessed be the memory of a scholar, writer, fighter, and an absolutely unique woman."
Nina Muliava was born in 1925 in Moscow and authored over 120 books dedicated to the works of Russian painters. She held a Ph.D. in historical sciences and was a member of the Union of Writers and the Union of Artists of Russia. Muliava owned works and paintings by major Russian creators, including Ivan Nikitin, Dmitry Levitsky, Pavel Chistyakov, and Konstantin Korovin.
After her husband’s death, Muliava inherited rights to a collection of 200 paintings from her husband, the artist Ilya Beliutin, which are valued at more than $2 billion. Muliava owned a significant collection of paintings through Beliutin, who passed away in 2012, which included works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Diego Velázquez, Titian, Bernardino de Conti, Antonio Rossellino, and others. According to the newspaper “Moskovskiy Kommersant,” open estimates by world experts value this collection of paintings by renowned artists at over $2 billion.
More than 10 years before her death, Muliava donated the entire collection to current Russian President Vladimir Putin under a will registered with a notary and in government circles. Muliava noted that the collection of paintings by Russian and international artists was initially started by her husband Beliutin’s grandfather, Ivan Grinev, who worked as an artist in the imperial theater and kept them in his apartment. In 1968, Beliutin and Muliava discovered the collection, which had been hidden in a secret room within the apartment, consisting of more than 10 rooms.
