Sergueï Chtchoukine, le roman d’un collectionneur

Why does the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg own one of the richest French Impressionists art collections in the world? Why has Russia given birth to innovative artists such as Kandinsky and Malevitch? These questions have one answer: Serguei Chtchoukine’s passion. From 1898 to 1914, this painting aficionado regrouped 258 paintings in Moscow, signed by names such as Matisse, Picasso, and Gauguin. He founded the first Modern Art museum in the world, which he left behind after the Russian Revolution in 1917, as the Soviet regime did all in its power to erase Chtchoukine from history. This documentary retells the tragic fate of this extraordinary collection, its rediscovery, and the journey of its creator, a collector who once shaped the art of his time.