OREANDA-NEWS. October 31, 2012. Recently, in Riga, Rietumu Bank exhibited the works from its corporate collection titled “The Presence of Art” at the “Riga Bourse” museum which was opened in the beginning of September. It was a common project of the bank and the Latvian National Museum of Arts that was timed to the twentieth anniversary of Rietumu, reported the press-centre of Rietumu Bank.

Forty-three paintings of European, Russian and Latvian artists that had been created at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries were shown in the main exhibition hall of the museum during the period of one and a half months. The works of Charles-Francois Daubigny , Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jules Dupre, George Lapchine and other representatives of the Barbizon and Paris school, as well as the portraits of Alexey Kharlamov, an outstanding Russian master, the works of Elie Anatole Pavil and Edouard Lepine were among the exhibited masterpieces.

The works of Latvian painters such as Vilhelms Purvitis (Purvitis), Ludolfs Liberts, Janis Tidemanis (Janis Tidemanis), Alexandra Beltsova (Aleksandra Belcova) and Eduards Kalninsh ( Kalnins) have smoothly fit into the exhibition context. For example, the exhibition visitors could see a splendid piece by Aleksandra Beltsova titled The Cafe, which was painted in Paris, as well as The Boulevard Haussmann in Paris by Ludolfs Liberts and the ‘Belgian’ works of Tidemanis.

The exhibition aroused wide interest of the art community and collectors. Over five thousand exhibition guests from Latvia, as well as guests from the Baltic countries, Europe and the CIS, visited the exposition in the “Riga Bourse”.

“The corporate collection of Rietumu numbers more than 200 masterpieces that have become a smoothly matching integral part of the interior in our office centre. For obvious reasons, these works can be usually seen by a rather small community, i.e. the clients and the employees of the bank. The exposition held in the “Riga Bourse” museum offered a unique opportunity to the broader circle of the public to get familiarised with the collection, as well as to see its best collected items to those who visits the bank and works therein”, says Sergey Grodnikov, Head of the PR and Marketing Department of Rietumu.

“Such an exhibition is a grand event and an interesting experience for our museum. It shows wonderful works of the painters, representatives of the Latvian, Russian, French and Belgian schools. Many of the paintings were exhibited publicly for the first time; formerly, they were in private collections in different countries. This collection was created very thoroughly and with love. It is impossible not to feel that when seeing the collection with your own eyes. I am glad that our long-term cooperation with Rietumu has found a reflection in this unique exhibition”, Vita Birzaka, the Deputy Director of the “Riga Bourse” museum shares her impressions.

At the moment, the Rietumu collection is the largest corporate art collection in Latvia and the Baltic States. The collection has been formed during the last 15 years. It is permanently located in the Rietumu Capital Centre – the central office of the Rietumu Bank in Riga.