January 7 (BTA) - A popular story, dating back fourty-seven years, has come to a happy ending. Ivan Vukadinov's painting "In Memory of Heroes" will finally become part of the Vatican museum collection. Before being sent to the Vatican, the artwork will be exhibited at the Rakursi Art Gallery in Sofia for three days from January 7 to January 9, art news website PloshtadSlaveikov.com reported.

The painting dazzled the Vatican specialists when it was displayed in a Bulgarian art exhibition in Rome in 1975. The Bulgarian ambassador to Italy at the time, Venelin Kotsev, sent a cable to then socialist Bulgaria that the Vatican wishes to expand its contemporary art collection by purchasing Vukadinov's painting. After a period of silence, a refusal followed. Bulgaria declared that "In Memory of Heroes" was a national treasure and was is not for sale. The answer was categorical, whether due to jealousy among fellow artists from the Union of Bulgarian Artists management or for a different reason. The intervention of the Apostolic Nuncio to Bulgaria could not help either.

The painting was brought back to Bulgaria. Having learned about the refusal, Vukadinov got angry with the totalitarian regime and vowed never to exhibit his own art in Bulgaria again. The communist regime in Bulgaria fell in 1989 but it was not until 2006 when Vukadinov returned to Sofia's artistic life. He started participating in exhibitions at the Rakursi Art Gallery every year on the Ivanovden feast day (Synaxis of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist, John), along with other artists named Ivan - Ivan Kirkov, Ivan Stoilov "Bounkera", Ivan Dimov, Ivan Andonov, Ivan Kolev, Ivan Milev, Ivan Kanev and Ivan Ninov.

The tradition continued right up to present day when the Vatican got in touch with the National Art Gallery in Sofia, once more seeking to acquire "In Memory of Heroes".

On Ivanovden January 7, 2022, nearly half a century after the socialists' refusal, Vukadinov exhibits the painting for which he had isolated himself from the audience. The artist is almost 90 years old at the time of the happy ending of the story.

Ivan Vukadinov was born in the village of Lomnitsa, Pernik Region (Western Bulgaria). In 1961 he graduated in Fine Art from the National Academy of Art in Sofia. His works of art have been displayed in Italy, France, Great Britain, Russia and Latvia. In the 1970s, Vukadinov got the attention of Italian collectors, displaying his painting in four different exhibitions in Rome, Arezzo, Pisa and Grosseto.

Vukadinov broke his self-imposed isolation from the art scene only twice. The first time that happened was in that same year of the Bulgarian art exhibition in Rome, 1975, when he displayed "In Memory of Heroes" along with other paintings of his in a solo-exhibition at the Rayko Alexiev Gallery in Sofia. In 1980, Vukadinov exhibited at the same gallery once more.

Prof. Aksinia Dzhurova, a specialist in the history of art, who has written two books on Vukadinov, describes his paintings as very unconventional compared to the most of the Bulgarian art in the 1960s. The artist's behaviour is perceived as unconformist and freed from desire for glory and honours. Vukadinov's creative approach is different, very personal and unique, marked by his life of quietness and solitude, Dzhurova said.