Mayor Elated Over Arts Pact With Soviets

Closing out an oft-criticized but apparently successful 18-day quest in the Soviet Union for works to display in her proposed Soviet arts festival, Mayor Maureen O’Connor returned to San Diego Tuesday evening with a contract that she says will make the city a “cultural power.”

“I’m more than satisfied,” she said of her attempt to borrow artworks to kick off the festival, tentatively planned for 1989. “We were in competition with Seattle, the Smithsonian . . . New York, and we won. There’s no question, for once San Diego was first.”

O’Connor stunned a lot of San Diego fine-arts experts and city officials Tuesday when she pulled off a deal with Soviet officials that may bring a collection of Soviet artworks--including rare 19th- and 20th-Century Faberge eggs--to the city next year.

Critics Called Trip a Waste

Critics of the trip said she was wasting time in the U.S.S.R. when she had more pressing duties in San Diego, which is grappling with growth-management issues and possible ballot measures concerning a police review board and district elections.

“The whole point that the mayor should stay home is ridiculous,” she responded. “People that say that don’t know the process. The polls showed that San Diegans wanted this festival and their artworks.”

O’Connor said the trip is pivotal in turning San Diego into a fertile cultural community.

“This was a crossroads for the city,” she said at an impromptu press conference outside the Pan American airlines gate where she deplaned. “It means we are going from an also-ran city to a cultural power.”

But, before O’Connor’s festival can become a reality, it must gain approval of the City Council by the end of September.

San Diego art groups expressed excitement at O’Connor’s apparent success in landing the eggs and other artworks and performances.

“I’m surprised and pleased that something this exquisite will be on display for the people of San Diego,” said Nancy Ames Petersen, director of the Timken Art Gallery, which has in its collection a number of Russian icons. “The eggs are just priceless. We are very interested in the icons, too.”

The non-binding contract was signed Monday in Moscow by the mayor and Vladislav I. Kazenin, the Soviet deputy minister of culture.

According to the current terms of the pact, about six of the eggs from the Moscow Armoury Museum will be on display at the San Diego Soviet arts festival in the fall of 1989, perhaps alongside as many as 12 Faberge eggs from the collection of millionaire publisher Malcolm Forbes.

The mayor’s office still has not secured Forbes’ eggs for the exhibition. However, Doug Byrnes, a member of O’Connor’s staff who has been in negotiations with the magnate’s representatives, said he was “95% sure” that the two Faberge collections would be seen together in San Diego.

“I think it will be the first time in this century, too,” said Byrnes, who has been in discussion with Forbes’ son.

The contract also includes plans for the first American exhibition of icons from the Georgian state fine arts museum in Tblisi and a performance by the Tblisi puppet theater. The agreement also calls for a production of the Modest Mussorgsky opera “Boris Godounov.”

Other possible events for the festival include a jazz performance by Soviet musicians, a photographic exhibit and folk dancers. These are still under consideration, though.

But arts groups in the city chose not to dwell on the unsettled stipulations of the mayor’s pact.

‘Means a Lot’

“We’re delighted by the agreement,” said Brenda Hughes, a public relations director for the San Diego Opera. “I think it means a lot of attention for the city, and that’s nice.”

The deal marked the culmination of an 18-day trip aimed at securing Soviet arts and artists for the proposed three-week festival, originally scheduled for 1990. Shortly after the tour began, O’Connor announced that the affair would be staged in 1989.

The pact won over many members of the art community, some of whom were skeptical of the mayor’s endeavor when she announced plans for the festival in her State of the City address in early January.

“She has obviously made an impression on the Soviets,” said Jane Rice, the deputy director of the San Diego Museum of Art, which may house the Faberge collection during its stay in San Diego. “I was impressed when I heard about it, but not surprised. The mayor’s office has called me from time to time on technical advice” about the agreement.

Rice said a display of the bejeweled Faberge eggs would be a certain boost to the museum’s already “superb” reputation, as well as a boon for a tourism-oriented San Diego.

“You look at that, and you’re looking at a significant economic impact,” she said. “People are going to come to see it. It could be on line with the Renoir exhibition in Boston.”

When asked how the festival would stack up against such major draws for the city as the Super Bowl and the America’s Cup yacht race, O’Connor boasted that there “is no comparison.”

‘Super Bowl of Culture’

“This is the Super Bowl of culture,” she said. “There is nothing--nothing--like the eggs.”

The Faberge eggs, crafted from gold and layered with diamonds and other gems, were fashioned in the late 1800s and early 1900s by Russian goldsmith Carl Faberge and his brother, Agathon. The eggs, which often depict miniature scenes and designs, were presented each year to czarinas by the Russian czars, beginning with Alexander III.

Some of the eggs open from the top to reveal “surprise” replicas of classic Russian buildings.

“They can be worth a small fortune,” said an executive of Sotheby’s, the swank Beverly Hills auction house on Rodeo Drive. “We sold an imperial egg two years ago for $1.5 million. They’re hard to price, though, because they stopped making them.”

City officials said they are enthused about the possibility of San Diego showcasing the priceless eggs.

“We’re very excited about the amount of progress the mayor was able to make on her first trip to the Soviet Union,” said Sal Giametta, an assistant to O’Connor. “There is no doubt it will be a successful and special event for the city.”

Giametta, who said no site or exact date for the festival has been selected, acknowledged that he had not counted on the extent of O’Connor’s success.

Confidence Expressed

“I’m not surprised,” he said, “but I think things have gone far better than expected. Everyone at the mayor’s office is pretty confident about having the festival.”

Giametta said the festival would probably “put San Diego on the map as a center for art and culture.”

A San Diego display of the eggs would not be the first in the state, though. The Los Angeles County Museum featured the Faberge artworks in an exhibit a few years ago.

That, however, did not dampen the glee of San Diego art enthusiasts.

“It shows that she’s a diplomat,” said Petersen of O’Connor. “I guess I’m a little naive about the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. I’m just wondering now what will be asked to be sent over there from the U.S.”