The history of each meeting can be divided into the fate of things and the fate of the person who collected them. We owe the happiness of seeing the world's best paintings by French Impressionists, as well as Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso to two Muscovites: a daring innovator who was not afraid to shock the Moscow public, merciless businessman Sergei Shchukin and millionaire Ivan Morozov, who in Paris was called "the Russian who does not bargain." The third hero, Ilya Ostroukhov, was an artist by profession, but by vocation he was a collector and museum builder, with an incredible temperament, passion and genuine passion, he bought French paintings and Russian graphics; oriental bronze and antique glass. It is he who is credited with the discovery of the artistic phenomenon of the Russian icon, in which completely different than the actual pictorial virtues were previously appreciated.