Memoirs

An extraordinary personality always evokes many myths and speculations. George Costakis did not escape this fate. The main question that tormented the many was: how did a Soviet man, who did not have the resources of a Western millionaire managed to assemble a collection the value of which is comparable to that of the world’s largest museum collections? Unfortunately, this question was not answered publicly during the collectors life time.

After leaving Russia, Costakis himself began to write memoirs and notes about his meetings and acquisitions. This work was not finished; after the death of the collector Aliki Kostaki gathered her father's notes and organised a publication. Thus in 1993 a small book called “My Avant-Garde. The memories of a Collector ”was published. These are laconic, but very frank memoirs, full of vivid portraits of his contemporaries. Immediately after publication, Costakis’ memoirs became a bibliographic rarity. They were re-published with new archival materials provided by Aliki Kostaki, as well as illustrations and photographic documents, by Vasily Rakitin. This book received a brief but very accurate title - "The Collector”.