How Eva, a $1.8 million Portrait, Became a Symbol of Protest
- Lukashenko seeks new term under pressure from Russia, Covid-19
- With elections Aug. 9, two opposition candidates are in jail
Arms folded and her lips sardonically askew, Eva makes an unlikely icon for the protest movement that’s shaking Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko ahead of presidential elections. For starters, “she” is an almost century-old oil painting.
Yet the portrait by the Jewish expressionist painter Chaim Soutine has swirled into the eye of a political storm. The banker responsible for buying it in 2013 -- for a cool $1.8 million at auction in New York -- is running for president from jail to try to end Lukashenko’s 26-year rule.
As chief executive of Belgazprombank, the Belarusian lender owned by Russia’s natural gas giant Gazprom PJSC and Gazprombank JSC, Viktor Babariko spent a decade hunting for paintings by Belarus-born artists to bring home and display to the public. He resigned from the bank in May to announce his candidacy for the Aug. 9 elections and was detained on June 18 amid a state security service probe into tax evasion and money laundering.