Uncanny Atlantis

Revolutionary Russia: among the hordes who fled the country, one man in particular carried with him the cherished memory of St. Petersburg’s crystalline Neoclassical architecture. In that city, he had designed the ballroom of Prince Yusupov – Rasputin’s assassin. Years later, in Rome, he created Villa Sandoz for an eccentric millionaire and collector of automata. Also a prolific artist, he defied history by halting its flow in a series of timeless cityscapes, many of them flooded. History took its revenge, condemning him to decades of obscurity. Now, at last, much like his silent colonnades and deserted squares, his name has begun to surface once again: Andrei Beloborodov. His arrival on the shores of the Mediterranean was a dream come true. His story is told here by Vincenzo Patanè, Giorgio Villani, and Eugénie von Neipperg, the author of the only monograph on this artist – as of this writing, still unpublished in English.