Felix Komarov Fifteen years ago, a lot of people were invited to the opening ceremony of my Rolls-Royce dealership in Moscow. They even invited the Queen of England, and they asked me if I could provide a Rolls-Royce for her to arrive in. I answered, “I can give as many Rolls-Royces as she would like.” But I wasn’t doing it for England, I was doing it for Russia. My only desire is for Russia to have not just a Rolls-Royce dealership, but every- thing all other countries in the world have. Not everybodywill drive a Rolls-Royce. But the existence of Rolls-Royces here is a way of creating a Russian dream—something for people towork toward. That’s important. It’s not a secret that a lot of wealthy people are very, very unhappy. Money never guaran- tees happiness. Some people here in Russia get everything too early, and only in the end do they find out that they lost a lot along the way. That’s the price of material success. There is a model of life that I have come up with. It’s like a pyramid. When we’re born, we’re at the bottom of the pyramid. It’s like a square made of sand, like a playground full of small children playing with each other. We’re all very friendly toward each other. But then life takes us up, and the pyramid’s getting more and more narrow. The higher up you get, the more pre- pared you should be that at the very top you might end up on your own, because there isn’t a lot of space. Still, people here are focused on material success much more these days. They think it is your path to a happier future. When I opened my dealership, people wanted to buy a Rolls-Royce for three reasons. The first: it was prestigious. The second: it was prestigious. The third reason was the same—it was prestigious. Time had to pass before people realized that it’s only a car. You can’t buy prestige just by buying a Rolls-Royce. We haven’t got old money in Russia like you do in America. When I was growing up, there weren’t really any particularly rich people in the Soviet Union, because everybody had to be equal. Then perestroika started with Gorbachev coming to power. Everybody started actively participating in various types of business here. I wasn’t an exception. In addition to opening my car dealership, I also began collecting art. The Russian writer Dostoyevsky once said, “Beautywill save the world.” I am not Dostoyevsky, and I don’t think beautywill save the world, but it will definitely help a lot. I have about four thousand paintings in my collection, many of them by Russian artists. t g
Twenty years ago I found myself in the United States, and I opened an art gallery in Manhattan. I wasn’t trying to dictate taste. But it just so happens that I became that person for some Russian people. There is a stereotype of newmoney and newRussians in the nineties. Theywere all wearing these really bright jackets and thick gold chains and had bad taste. People with newmoney don’t have the background to understandwhat good taste is about. They need help. I thought it was really unfair that all those people, who are so successful but just haven’t been born into money, don’t have that under- standing. They need to be introduced to it. It’s very important to explain to them that you can enrich yourself through sculpture or paintings, through art. It’s a very important part of your life and the life of your children as well. Russians are the same as Americans, but when it comes to appreciating art, they’re still a work in progress. Russians now do want to be like people with old money. They buy big collections of art, and they open museums. But everybody is starting from square one here. They try, but because they don’t have the knowledge, they don’t always get it right. You can buy a castle but not status. That takes time. There are a lot of Russians who try to jump ahead—to give birth to a child in one month. Those people are not just greedy for money. Theywant status, and theywant it now. When people are working toward that, and they make it their aim, sooner or later it’s going to happen. Art and culture will follow. Aristocracy is not about money. It’s about nobility. There is a lot of talk now about the need to help the poor—and, of course, that’s very important. But what do we do with people who have money, who are already successful? They need to be helped as well. They don’t have the knowledge about what a good car is or what a goodwatch is. They need to be taught the world of culture, the world of art, because all of them are helpless about it. So I help the rich. t
→ Felix Komarov, 64, at home in Moscow, 2012. Komarov, a prominent businessman, opened the first Rolls- Royce dealership inMoscow as well as a Russian art gallery in NewYork. In addition to a significant private art collection, includingmore than seven thousand frog-themed works, he also owns a large number of live albino frogs.
→ An art patron with a Céline bag at an opening at the Triumph Gallery near Moscow’s Red Square, 2012. Dmitry Khankin, co-owner of the gallery, says that at one of his openings, “you’ll see twenty-five crocodile Birkin bags.”
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