Tim Parchikov

At all times every new political or financial elite felt a need for self-identification with classic culture. Thus, it demonstrated its legitimacy and accentuated the appropriateness of its inheritance of previous epoch’s establishment. After conquering ancient Greece Romans began to reproduce Greek sculptures. Greek culture treated those copies, made by arising Roman elite, with disregard. For them it was, as we put it now, tasteless glare. Nonetheless, Roman copies became the examples of high classic culture and the mass character of their production hasn’t made their cultural value less significant. For instance, while building subway in Rome in 1930s the constructors discovered a whole factory of copies of Venuses and Apollo’s that were different only in terms of their state of preservation. All of them went straight to the best museums of Italy. Roman copies served as examples for Renaissance era artists, and their sculptures, in their turn, were copied during following epochs. As a result, today in the museum of Louvre can be seen three equally important copies of Heracles Farnese — of 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Plaster casts, statues made of marble and other materials being sold on the European, American and today also on Russian and Chinese roads are following this tradition. Impetuous rise of a new Russian elite that accumulated enormous amounts of money and power requests another return of the «Romans», this time in Moscow region. If a social mechanism of reference to classical art remains the same, then Moscow copies must find their places in the museums one day too.