General Director of Channel One Konstantin Ernst is a victim in a criminal case related to the forgery of works by sculptor and graphic artist Ernst Nezvestny. This was told by Kommersant by two sources on the art market and confirmed by a source at the Tretyakov Gallery.
The fakes were discovered at the exhibition dedicated to the centenary of Ernest the Unknown, which was held in the New Tretyakov Gallery from December 16, 2025 to May 12, 2026, one of Kommersant’s interlocutors said.
“The Unknown Exhibition was pressed on its centenary by Konstantin Lvovich Ernst. He is a very great collector of drawings and sketches [работ художников-]nonconformists, [к которым относят и Неизвестного]. The Tretyakov Gallery accepted his works as original, the source said.
In the gallery It was submitted Works from the museum and private collections. The Kommersant source added that counterfeits were found only in special products. It is not known who is the victim in this case besides Konstantin Ernst.
Updated. Kommersant removed information from the article that Konstantin Ernst was identified as a victim. Now the newspaper writes that Ernest is not involved in the case “in any capacity.” Among the victims in the case, Kommersant newspaper reported, were the founder of the Velum Gallery, Lyubov Agafonova, the director of the First Names Auction House, Rosa Verkhovina, and the executive director of the Prometheus Art Foundation, Vyacheslav Ershov.
The Investigative Committee reported a criminal case regarding the falsification of the works of Ernst Nezvestny on May 29. Those accused of this passes Deputy Chief of Staff of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy Captain 2nd Rank Maxim Koshkarev. According to investigators, he and his accomplices (yet to be identified) forged at least 30 works by Ernst Neizvestny and sold them to private collectors.
Ernst Neizvestny is one of the key figures in post-war Soviet art. In 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev described his works as “degenerate art.” After that, Nezvestny was expelled from the Union of Artists, and he was unable to work normally. In the 1970s, the sculptor immigrated to the United States, where his art achieved great success.