#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Throughout his life, Rehlov kept in touch with the Dresden Art Gallery, the Louvre, the Tate Gallery, the Roman National Gallery and other museums around the world, who sent him parcels with new reproductions. He even wrote to Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, who sent him an album of reproductions as a gift.
By the early 1970s, Ivan’s collection already had over 70,000 facsimile reproductions and about a thousand originals of works by various artists.
Rehlov shared his home gallery, held exhibitions in Norilsk hostels and libraries, at enterprises and in the Palace of Culture.
Having retired in 1969, Rehlov turned to the Norilsk authorities with a proposal to donate his collection to the city, but on the condition of allocating a room for the exposition.
That did not happen, and Ivan moved to the village of Shushenskoye, where a people’s art gallery of trade unions was opened on the basis of his collection.
When a picture gallery appeared in Norilsk, Ivan Rehlov donated a collection of original graphics of 43 sheets to it.
After his death, in the 1990s, Norilsk bought over a thousand unique books on fine art and part of the reproductions from the Rehlov’s collection.
In previous issue of the History Spot photo project, we told about first Norilsk bakery.
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Text: Svetlana Samohina, Photo: Nornickel Polar Division archive
