Reception House

“The Costakis house, with the rapid growth of its collection and after moving into a new and more spacious apartment, became not only a unique avant-garde museum, but also the only“ window to Europe ”available to many of its visitors - that of the aesthetics of the twentieth century.” (from the memoirs of art critic Elena Murina).

The first place where Costakis’ guests could see his avant-garde collection was a communal apartment on Bolshaya Bronnaya: the family was huddled in two rooms, surrounded on all sides by paintings from the 1910s and 1920ies. Then, in the early 1960ies, a separate apartment was purchased on Leninsky prospekt (N.13), where the works of the avant-garde artists hung in a dense tapestry (some of them on the ceiling). It was here that contemporary artists, supported by Costakis (Zverev, Krasnopevtsev and others), began to gather.

Finally, the Costakis family home turned into a public space and an unofficial museum - "reception house" - with the move to a spacious triplex apartment on prospekt Vernadskogo (N. 59). In addition to high-ranking diplomats, scientists and art figures from all over the world, whole groups went there on excursions. The owner spoke patiently about the artists and their work. There was even a "guest book", which by the early 1970s was full of autographs of celebrities. The significance of the Costakis’ "house of receptions" is eloquently evidenced by a short entry from 1968: "Georgy Dionisovich, thank you for your higher education.”