However, none of its competitors believe it. Phillips CEO Stephen Brooks posted on social media that the auction house unequivocally condemn[s] the invasion of Ukraine. u thng ny, Matthew Girling, cu Gim c iu hnh ca Bonhams, ni vi Art Newspaper rng mi ngi nn ty chay Phillips, cng ty thuc s hu ca ngi Nga Leonid Friedland v Leonid Strunin. Inspectors found that TSUM had been using this strategy of social tax evasion since 2004. The company, Russia's largest luxury goods retailer, was set up in 1993. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which took place on February 24th, shocked the whole world. In a statement on Friday, theU.S. Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control said that it was targeting the two largest banks in Russia, the Public Joint Stock Company Sberbank of Russia and the VTB Bank Public Joint Stock Company. LONDON (Reuters) - Auction houses Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams have cancelled sales of Russian art in London in June, part of the art market's response to Western sanctions on Russia as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine. Mercury carefully distanced from Ecolux`s troubles with customs. As president and CEO of Mercury, the largest luxury retail group in Russia, Friedland and his associate, Leonid Strunin,. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. We want to hear from you! His greatest pride is his tank with piranhas. While many tended to have traditional tastes, the same source said it was particularly sad as sanctions on Russia, and the clampdown on the movement of money, would halt a growing trend towards collecting and preserving more recent Russian art and history. She has opened several Babochka multi-brand boutiques, which represent brands such as Stella McCartney and Valentino, as well as mono-brand boutiques selling merchandise by Chanel, Fendi, Giorgio Armani and others. Mercury is also Russias largest retailer of luxury watches, Swatch Group has already said it has stopped exporting watches to Russia, Patek Phillipe Nautilus watch created with Tiffany, LVMH and Richemont suspend operations in Russia, Breitling CEO joins street protest against Russian invasion of Ukraine, eBay auctions Milus Snow Star Boreal Green to raise money for Red Cross in Ukraine, Christopher Ward gifts Ukraine watch to 18-year-old refugee from his war-torn country, Sanctions push Harrods to limit watch sales to Russian customers. Source: History of criminal case N 18/277049-99. Aucun des deux actuels propritaires de Phillips ne figure sur les listes de sanction et si l'identit des . One of the principal divas of Russian cinema, Litvinova is a student and follower of the great filmmaker Kira Muratova. For instance, a men`s Zegna wool costume was declared as worth $100, but in Moscow its sale price soared over $3,000. The watch firm Lange and Peter Avens investment firm have been approached for comment. In that same vein, it is understood the owners are not the subject of any sanctions or affiliated with any parties targeted by sanctions. The U.K. announced sanctions targeting five banks and high net worth Russian oligarchs in Vladimir Putins close circle. Source: Kommersant-Online, 18 January 2012. In 2007, Mercury announced launching the Sochi Luxury Village Project (similar to the Barvikha Luxury Village in Moscow region) in Esta-Sadok settlement near Sochi. Set in grounds of over 80,000 square metres complete with hotels, spas and a concert hall, the village also boasts a dedicated shopping street lined with brands such as Can the art market simply ignore it and carry on as normal?, Russian banks have been virtually cut off from the world financial system when they were unplugged from the SWIFT payments apparatus. In 2006-2007, the TSUM (principal owner is the luxury retailer Mercury) signed contracts with 24 staffing agencies, all of them using a simplified taxation scheme. Neither Mr Fridlyand nor Mr Strunin is on a US or UK sanctions listand Phillips told The Art Newspaper it wouldnt do business with anyone who was on a sanctions list. Mysterious Tomb Unearthed in Armenia, Containing a Couple Who DiedTogether. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. The list includes a number of Russians but who are they? De Pury, however, is completely sanguine about the two Leonids' attitude. In a Financial Times interview in 2017, Aven identified his favourite piece as Les Maisonettes Rouges by Marc Chagall, bought for a recorded 3.3m. Phillips said earlier this week it does not expect sanctions to affect its business. We call for an immediate cessation of all hostilities in the strongest possible terms, he said. Neither Fridlyand nor Strunin is on a US or UK sanctions list and Phillips told The Art Newspaper it wouldnt do business with anyone who was on a sanctions list. One director of Sothebys another auction house told the Telegraph that they were checking bulletins hourly to see whether any of their buyers and sellers were on any government sanctions lists. In a second Instagram post yesterday, the auctioneer announced that it will be donating 100% of the buyers premium and vendors commission from its recent 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society. All Rights Reserved. In 2003, the Central Customs Administration took an inventory of Armani, Gucci, Zegna and Dolche&Gabbana stores owned by Mercury in Moscow. Mercury will build a five-star hotel, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Gucci and Chopard boutiques, restaurants, a concert and conference hall in the area of 8 hectares. ARTnews > Sites in Beirut, Benghazi and Brownsville, Texas, make a most-endangered list Mercury Group was established in 1994 by Friedland and Leonid Strunin, who are known to be its principal owners. In November 2011, committee for the administration of state property hesitated to approve the new deadline, suspecting that the company would sell the DLT to Gasprom as the office space. Criminal proceedings against ex-Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov revealed that he had placed an order for 14 tailored suites made by the Italian company Zegna. Leonid Mikhelson, the billionaire owner of Russia's gas giant Novatek, has been supporting the Western art world for more than a decade, sponsoring exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago . Meanwhile, Hall said that even if people didnt want to boycott Phillips for moral reasons, practical reasons should stop people from placing bids: the risk is that Phillips accounts could be frozen and consignors find they dont see their sales proceeds. Mercury reputedly paid around US$60 million to acquire a majority share, although the actual transaction was private. Along with the rest of the art world, we have been shocked and saddened by the tragic events unfolding in the region. Mercury is also Russias largest retailer of luxury watches. Friedland and Strunin have not been named among the people whose assets are being frozen by the US and UK, though even businessmen who are not being hit with sanctions could face difficulties going forward. Unofficially, senior Phillips folks are reaching out to investors like Hall to convince them to continue to do business with the auction house, Hall said. Mercury is run by Leonid Friedland, whom the style writer Suzy Menkes has described as "one of the most powerful men in fashion," and his associate, Leonid Strunin. Click here to find out more. Az aukcis hzat a kt orosz zletember, Leonid Friedland s Leonid Strunin ltal alaptott Mercury Group vsrolta meg 2008-ban kzel 60 milli dollrrt. Update the org chart details of Leonid Friedland. Yet Leonid Friedland is one of the most powerful men in fashion. The Business of Fashion publication has published a list of the top 500 most influential people in the world of international fashion. Both are Russian with their address given as Phillips London headquarters in Mayfair and their countries of residence recorded as Monaco and Cyprus, respectively. ARTnews is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Strunin was aware of that, because he has the right of disposal on the off-shore company Vetra Holding account, used as intermediary by said transaction. Earlier this month, Matthew Girling, the former CEO of Bonhams, told the Art Newspaper that people should boycott Phillips, which is owned by Russians Leonid Friedland and Leonid Strunin.. Leonid Friedland had already declared that Mercury didn`t participate in foreign trade activities, in fact, he had no idea how the goods were delivered to Moscow. Friedland and Strunin also own the Mercury Retail Group, one of Russia's largest luxury goods retailers. The company should have built a mall and a parking lot on the site of the department store by September 2011, but it exceeded the alotted time. We've received your submission. Source: Komsomolskaya Pravda, 15 November, 2002. Mercury Group was established in 1994 by Friedland and Leonid Strunin, who are known to be its principal owners. Now those new projects are frozen and nothing can be taken out of Russia., Stephen Brooks, the CEO of Phillips, said earlier this month: We at Phillips unequivocally condemn the invasion of Ukraine. The Berkeley Square headquarters of Phillips, which was acquired in 2008 by Russian luxury-goods company Mercury Group. Phillips's new Manhattan headquarters at 450 Park Avenue, New York. You have entered an incorrect email address! Phillips runs a good operation, but so did German companies during WWII who were intimately involved with the Nazis, Hall wrote on his Instagram account. MILAN None of the buzz at Prada's show last Friday included the thirty-something man in the dark suit and sunshine yellow tie sitting front row. Previously, Leonid was the Board of Trustees Mem ber at The State Hermitage Museum. Born in 1969, Strunin is the Chairman of Mercury, the largest Russian luxury retailer, selling watches and clothes as well as cars. Since 2008, the auction house has belonged to Leonid Friedland and Leonid Strunin, the owners of Russian luxury group Mercury. UK freezes assets of seven Russian oligarchs including Roman Abramovich, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. 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All bets are off now. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, powerful sanctions against Putins oligarchs, When disinfo specialists lie, Gray Ladys DeSantis frustration and other commentary, Putins former spin doctor-turned-critic dead, Ukraines northeastern front could decide new battle lines, Biden needs to step up military aid for Ukraine fast, unplugged from the SWIFT payments apparatus, said Wednesday that hed sell the Chelsea soccer team. We have seen how the world of banking, travel, leisure, sport and culture have responded to the crisis. Thats because oftentimes bidders are shrouded in secrecy and store their physical assets and thus any trace of ownership in clandestine, off-the-books locations. Phillips is listed by Companies House as having two owners "with significant control" - Leonid Fridlyand and Leonid Strunin - Russians who give their address as the company's Mayfair . Phillips has said it doesnt expect sanctions to affect its business. Miroslava Duma, publisher of Buro 24/7. 1994 - Present, Vice President, Mercury Group, Chief Executive Officer, Tsum, Former Co-Chief Executives, Westfield Group, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications, Hearst Corporation. All rights reserved. Tom Ford Most people think Simon de Pury is still the owner., However, Matthew Girling, the former chief executive of Bonhams (he left in 2020) and now an independent consultant, tells The Art Newspaper he believes people should still boycott Phillips over its Russian links. "Around 50 %" of the figure went to cover Phillips's liabilities. Still, doing business with any powerful company based in Russia is outrageous, Andy Hall, a retired hedge funder, oil trader, art collector and philanthropist told The Post. Friedland and Strunin also own the Mercury Retail Group, one of the largest luxury goods retailers in Russia. Previously, de Pury was the majority shareholder. On August 23, the Mercury construction director Dmitry Eliseev wrote to the first deputy chairman of Saint-Petersburg commitee for construction Nikolay Krutov, asking him for 10-month extention of the term. 5. Russia was the 17th largest market in the world for Swiss watches last year, receiving exports worth CHF 260 million with a retail value of over half a billion francs. All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The company owns the "boutique street" in Tretyakov Proyezd in the center of Moscow, the fashionable Barvikha Luxury Village and the TsUM department store, which sells more than 1,000 brands, including Tom Ford, Bottega Veneta, Dolce & Gabbana, Saint Lauren, Bentley, Bulgari and Patek Philippe. With reported annual revenues of more than $8 billion, the company operates high-end department stores and shopping centers, including the prestigious TsUM . We want to hear from you! Phillips also recently announced its exclusive representation of photographer Annie Leibovitz (see story below). In recent years, Phillips has successfully carved out a niche for itself by holding sales of cutting-edge contemporary art, photography and design, in addition to conducting private treaty sales. Friedland and Strunin, who are not subject to any sanctions, list their addresses on Companies House as the Berkeley Square headquarters of Phillips, which was acquired in 2008 by their Russian luxury goods company, Mercury Group. Biography . Russian teams have been excluded from world sporting competitions and oligarchs like Roman Abramovich are seeing pressure to sell their teams. The luxury group started with a 30-square-meter (322-square-foot) shop selling watches that has developed into the current focus on jewelry brands that include Bulgari, Chaumet, Chopard, Graff, de Grisogno and Tiffany. As with the football club, critics such as Hall believe Phillips ties with Russia should now be severed. Its upsetting because its a step towards changing the culture, too. Along with the rest of the art world, we have been shocked and saddened by the tragic events unfolding in the region. I dont think that anyone should be dealing with Russian or Russian-owned companies at the moment, said Andy Hall, an art collector and philanthropist. Aside from its owners referred to in the art world as the two Leonids the other most visible Russian in the British art world is Peter Aven, a UK-based oligarch who stepped down from a London-based investment conglomerate and a prestigious Royal Academy position after he and other oligarchs were hit by EU sanctions. Phillips, of course is owned by Mercury Group, founded in 1993 by the Russian entrepreneurs Leonid Friedland and Leonid Strunin who acquired the auction house in 2008, when it was known as. Leonid Strunin. Although Friedland does not give figures, sources in Moscow suggest that Mercury's annual turnover is $300 million outstripping its competitors in the luxury field. In Russia, besides modeling for Guerlain, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs and other brands, Vodyanova is famous for her charity work. 7. This intermediary firm was charged with regular custom value underreporting. By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - Auction houses Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams have cancelled sales of Russian art in London in June, part of the art market's response to. Former Bonhams C.E.O. For example, the billionaire Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea football club, placed the club under the stewardship of a trust over the weekend, no doubt a defensive measure given his reportedly close relationship with the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Mercury's critics (always off the record) suggest that the company should teach the consumer that a luxury product is not just about logos; that it is ruthless in cutting deals to undermine its smaller competitors; and that its markups are outrageously high. Owned by Leonid Friedland and Leonid Strunin, Mercury Group is Russias largest luxury retail company. Mercury is also Russia's largest retailer of luxury watches. Earlier this month, Matthew Girling, the former CEO of Bonhams, told the Art Newspaper that people should boycott Phillips, which is owned by Russians Leonid Friedland and Leonid Strunin. Friedland says that he is mulling expansion to St. Petersburg and also of rolling out department stores across the former Soviet Union. With an expanding market of eager, upbeat consumers, as opposed to retailers on shrinking budgets in the morose Western markets, Mercury's buyers are becoming luxury fashion's big spenders. , Brioni, Balenciaga and Tods. Skuratov was very worried about the fact that his suits were paid by Mabetex, and he gave Borodin $10.000 pay-in, asking for the receipt. Many of the most high-profile works set to be auctioned on Thursday are by artists popular with Russians, like a 1980s triptych by Francis Bacon expected to fetch up to $73 million. (Ralph Lauren is still being vigorously courted). Having created from a rundown arcade, the Tretyakov Projezd, a mall of brands that Friedland describes as "Moscow's Via Montenapoleone" (referring to the upscale Milan street), Friedland has discovered more fertile areas to seed with its luxury brands from Fendi furs through Tod's shoes. The holding company runs a chain of luxury stores across the country, including the Moscow department store Tsum. Its holdings include the Tretyakov Projezd and Barvikha Luxury Villageboth high-end. By Elizabeth Howcroft. Phillips has had its share of ups and downs in the past decade. I am glad he [Stephen Brooks] has said this but at the end of the day it is just words. Kawakubo not only dedicated a corner of her cult Dover Street Market in London to his sweaters and sweatpants with Cyrillic writing but also helped him with just about everything else: from sewing prototypes to promotion to selling in her Paris showroom. Earlier this month, Matthew Girling, the former CEO of Bonhams, told the Art Newspaper that people should boycott Phillips, which is owned by Russians Leonid Friedland and Leonid Strunin . Mercurys properties house boutiques for such fashion brands as Gucci, Prada and Giorgio Armani, as well as showrooms for Ferrari, Maserati and Bentley automobiles. In 2008, the company`s revenue amounted to 9, 832 billion roubles, sales proceeds totaled 95 million roubles. He is also the founder of TSUM Art Foundation. Renata Litvinova, actress, director and creative director at the Numro Russia magazine. The main elements of her image are elegance in black tones, a wavy 1940s-style haircut and bright red lipstick. Named after the Roman god of commerce, the Mercury Group, one of Russias largest retail and real estate conglomerates, was founded by Leonid Fridlyand and Leonid Strunin in 1993. Karput established her avant-garde, street brand store in 2009, using the famous Colette in Paris as a model. After LVMH owner Bernard Arnault acquired a majority stake in 1999, the company made an unsuccessful attempt to compete with Sothebys and Christies, often through aggressive use of guarantees, which were not always recouped at auction. After Borodin had left, Skuratov counted the money to realize that he was given back the same $10.000. In 2005, the duo also launched the Barvikha Luxury Village development. He is a bit vain, though carefully conceals this fact: his photograph is kept behind the wall of his office and can be shown only to chosen ones. Mr Fridlyand and Mr Strunin are also owners of Mercury Retail Group, one of the largest retail conglomerates in Russia with 125,000 employees, according to its website, mainly in supermarkets and convenience stores. After Rei Kawakubo (Comme DesGarons) took the young Russian designer and photographer under her wing in 2010, he became a household name among the world's fashion buffs. Mercury started investing into Expansion Redesign project of the DLT in 2005. 3. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. Strunin has identified a suit, confiscated from Skuratov, stating confidently that it is in fact made by Ermeneglido Zegna. Some collectors are calling for a boycott of the Phillips auction on Thursday. Among them are Gennady Timchenko, an energy mogul and owner of investment firm Volga Group who has a track record of working to promote Russian heritage abroad through arts and cultural initiatives. Friedland and Strunin also own the Mercury Retail Group, one of the largest luxury goods retailers in Russia. ", https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/03/news/rising-czars-of-russias-retail-luxury.html, Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune.