113. Royal Icon on wood, "Saint Nicholas the Miracle Maker", Romanian school, first half of the 19th century, from the collection of the world vice champion of bridge Coriolan Neamțu

Dimensions

width 67 cm, height 89 cm

Description

tempera and gold leaf on wood

PROVENANCE

Coriolan Neamțu was born in 1925, in Satu-Mare, in a family of Transylvanian intellectuals. He was a graduate of the Faculty of Law and the Academy of High Commercial and Industrial Studies in Bucharest. His particular concern for the game of bridge allowed him to overcome professional dissatisfactions, inherent in the communist regime, and to passionately dedicate himself to bridge. He was an active promoter and organizer of the game of bridge in Romania, a tournament director and bridge teacher. Between 1970-1983 (when bridge was officially banned in Romania) Coriolan Neamțu wrote and published the magazine "Expert Bridge", printed and distributed in hundreds of copies semi-secretively. As a professional journalist, with columns in domestic magazines and newspapers and frequent contributions to prestigious foreign magazines, he wrote several works of bridge literature: "Competitive Bridge" (1973), "Fun Bridge" (1982), "Start Bridge" (1990), "Humorous Bridge" (1991) and "Bridge Conventions" (1991). Being a great animal lover as well, in 1979 he published a book entitled "The Dog, Man's Friend", which was very successful at the time. In 2000 he published a volume of maxims and thoughts "Restitutio in absurdum". He was a member of the Jockey Club Romania, the International Association of Bridge Journalists, the 1992 IBPA world runner-up in bridge in Salsomaggiore, and the editor of the bridge column in the magazine "Free Time", the weekly supplement of the "România Liberă" newspaper.