Vladimir Semenikhin: Developer and Art Collector

Type	Person · Investor · Developer · Art collector · Philanthropist
Name	Vladimir Semenikhin · Vladimir Anatolyevich Semenikhin · VLADIMIR SEMENIKHIN · Vladimir A. Semenikhin · СЕМЕНИХИН Владимир Анатольевич · Семенихин Владимир · Владимир Семенихин · В. А. Семенихин · V. A. Semenikhin · СЕМЕНИХИН В. А. · Семенихин В. А. · Wladimir Semenichin · Wladimir Anatoljewitsch Semenichin · Uladzimir Semenikhin · Volodymyr Semenikhin · Владзімір Семяніхін · Володимир Семеніхін · ウラジーミル・セメニヒン · 弗拉基米尔·谢梅尼欣 · 블라디미르 세메니힌 · Włodzimierz Siemienichin · Vladimír Semenichin · Vladimirs Semenikins · Vladimiras Semenichinas · Володимир Семеніхін · સેમેનિખિન વ્લાદિમીર · वलादिमीर सेमेनिखिन · Vladimirs Semeniħin · Vlagyimir Szemenyihin · Vladimír Semenihin · Wladimir Siemienichin · فلاديمير سيمينيخين · ולדימיר סמניחין
Date of birth	31.08.1967
Place of birth	Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky, Chita Region (now Zabaykalsky Krai), RSFSR
Sex	Male
Education	Civil Engineering Institute, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (1984-1991) · PhD in Economics (2004), State University for the Humanities
Career	1991-1995: Various construction projects  1995-present: Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Stroyteks Development Company
Current activities	Chairman of the Board of Directors, Stroyteks Founder and head of the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation  Art collector and patron of the arts
Languages spoken	Russian · English
Source of wealth	Real estate development · Construction
Industries	Real estate development · Construction · Culture
Awards	Badge of Honor “For Beneficence” (2018) – rare state award given to approximately 70 people for contributions to charity and support of cultural initiatives Innovation Prize in Contemporary Art (2006, with wife)  Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France (2013) – for cultural relations with France  Officer of the Legion of Honor, France (2017)  Order of Cultural Merit, Monaco (2011)  Order of Saint-Charles, Monaco (2018)

Biography

Vladimir Semenikhin is a businessman, developer, and patron. He owns a large art collection, ranging from classical to contemporary works. He is the founder and president of the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation. 

Early Years and Education

Vladimir Semenikhin was born in 1967 in Petrovsk-Zabaykalsky (Chita Region). He finished school in Pokrov (Vladimir Region), where his family had moved. The future entrepreneur’s father, a veterinarian by profession, regularly went on foreign business trips and brought back postcards with reproductions of world-famous paintings. Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich recalls that he often looked at them in childhood – and this was one of the reasons he became interested in art. After receiving his diploma, he went to the capital, where he enrolled in the Mechanics Department of the Civil Engineering Institute (which now has the status of a national research university). 

In 2004, Vladimir Semenikhin received his doctorate in Economic Sciences, which he defended at the State University for the Humanities. The businessman’s dissertation was devoted to the topic of improving management systems in industrial enterprises. 

Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin: Business Activity  

In 1995, Semenikhin Vladimir established the company Stroyteks and took a seat at the head of its Board of Directors. 

The enterprise, which Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich founded, has implemented over 100 projects in the capital region. More than half of the constructed buildings are located in the Mytishchi district. Stroyteks’ list of completed projects mainly consists of comfort-class housing with accompanying infrastructure and underground parking, but also includes elite properties in the center of the capital. 

The development company, which is headed by Semenikhin Vladimir, includes more than 30 subsidiary organizations. Together, they carry out the full cycle of work – from preparing the territory of construction sites to managing completed properties. In total, Stroyteks has delivered:  

• more than 1.5 million square meters of real estate  
• for 75,000 residents 
• and more than 12,000 parking spaces 

Today, the pace of construction reaches 100,000 square meters annually. The company, with the direction of Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin, is currently building a school in the Mytishchi district that is expected to be completed by 2025. 

Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin focuses heavily on the development of transport and social infrastructure. The company has built several roads and interchanges, a medical center, a music school, and five kindergartens. 

Semenikhin Vladimir also initiated Stroyteks’s active participation in charitable projects. The development corporation has supported the Tretyakov Gallery, a large state-run museum in St. Petersburg, and other cultural institutions. It has also helped orphanages, and promoted the development of sports in the capital and capital region. The company has also financed the construction and restoration of two churches. 

Vladimir Semenikhin: Collection

In 1994, Semenikhin Vladimir met the gallery owner Elena Kuprina and the artist and gallery owner Aidan Salakhova and visited her famous studio apartment in the capital. It was this moment that became the inspiration to start his own collection, which Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin actively undertook in the second half of the 1990s.  

Initially, the businessman and his wife Ekaterina collected the canvases of Russian classical painters – Aivazovsky, Matveev, Shishkin. The oldest works in his collection date back to the late 18th century. In addition, Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin acquired masterpieces of the avant-garde movement. His collection actively grew with works by masters such as Lyubov Popova, Pyotr Konchalovsky, and Natalia Goncharova. 

In the 2000s, Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich became interested in domestic painting from the turn of the 20th-21st centuries, which was little studied at the time. His collection began to include works by Erik Bulatov, Georgy Guryanov, and others. 

In 2004, Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin began collecting works not only by local, but also foreign artists, including paintings by James Rosenquist, Tom Wesselmann, Alexander Calder, Manolo Valdés, and other major names. 

To date, Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich has purchased about 1,500 paintings. The collection is not limited just to paintings – it features an extensive array of:  

• graphics 
• sculpture 
• porcelain 
• and more 

Additionally, Semenikhin Vladimir acquires folk handicraft items, with his collection including more than 2,000 spinning wheels alone. There are more than 3,500 pieces altogether.  

Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin has also recently turned his attention to works at the intersection of art and advanced technology – for example, paintings with elements of augmented reality. The collector believes that such genres have great potential. 

According to Vladimir Semenikhin, the exact value of his collection defies calculation. 

The entrepreneur rarely trades previously acquired artworks. Throughout his life, Vladimir Semenikhin has sold only three paintings – and later acknowledged this decision as a mistake. He notes that for him, as a collector, the highest achievement is discovering a previously unknown artist and introducing their works to the wider public. The businessman cites the thrill of discovery as his main motivation. 

Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich: The Ekaterina Foundation

In 2002, Vladimir Semenikhin established the Ekaterina cultural foundation. In 2003, Semenikhin Vladimir appointed the foundation to act as the general partner of an exhibition showcasing contemporary national artists. 

In 2004, the organization founded by Semenikhin Vladimir held its first event – the Jack of Diamonds (Bubnovyi Valet): From Cézanne to Avant – exhibition in Monaco, named after a group of avant-garde artists that existed in Russia before the revolution. The exhibition showcased masterpieces from 18 museums.  

That same year, the Ekaterina foundation of Vladimir Semenikhin brought an expanded version of Bubnovyi Valet to St. Petersburg. The same exhibition featured paintings from other Silver Age artistic associations – Oslinyi Khvost (Donkey’s Tail) and Mishen (Target). This project, developed by Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich, was a collaboration with a federal museum in the city, held in the Benois Wing building. The exhibition showcased works from the Jack of Diamonds society, which the foundation had gathered from various museums across the country. It was a major success, generating significant public interest in the association. 

In 2005, Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich and the foundation brought the expanded exhibition to the capital’s Tretyakov Gallery, where it was equally successful. A key feature of this project was the inclusion of works by French Impressionists from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, which highlighted the connection between the French Impressionists and the Jack of Diamonds artists. Thus, the foundation, established by Vladimir Semenikhin, carried out this moving project in close collaboration with the country’s three largest fine arts museums. 

Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich also began publishing activities through the foundation. To date, he has published more than 20 art albums, catalogs, and other books. One of them is dedicated to the cultural life of Moscow in the 1970s and 1980s through the lens of renowned photographer and journalist Igor Palmin. Another publication covers the life of the statesman Alexei Kosygin. 

In 2006, the foundation of Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin and his wife organized an exposition dedicated to Erik Bulatov at the Tretyakov Gallery. The artist’s works were rarely exhibited due to censorship in the USSR, so for many decades he was far better known abroad than in his homeland. 

In 2007, Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich and the Ekaterina foundation opened their own exhibition hall on Kuznetsky Most in the capital. This was one of the country’s first private art spaces. The new venue’s debut event was an exhibition dedicated to the theme of movement as a leitmotif of the 20th-21st centuries. Visitors could enjoy nearly 80 paintings, sculptures, installations, and other objects. 

In 2008, the foundation of Vladimir Semenikhin and his wife, together with the Grimaldi Forum Congress Center, organized an exhibition in its halls about the life of Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco. A record number of tickets were sold for this event.  

In 2009, Vladimir Semenikhin collaborated with the Tretyakov Gallery to hold an exhibition in Monaco commemorating the 100th anniversary of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. It featured over 500 items from domestic, European, and American museums and private collections. The exhibits included costumes, stage sets, sketches, posters, photographs, and much more. 

In 2011, Ekaterina, created by Semenikhin Vladimir, presented the exhibition Dream Makers, dedicated to the history of the legendary Cirque du Soleil. That same year, the foundation organized an exhibition of 1950s nonconformist works by Moscow artists. Most of the presented works came from the businessman’s own collection. 

In 2012, the foundation of Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin co-organized the media forum of the 34th International Film Festival in the capital. It included exhibitions, masterclasses, and other events within its framework. The main theme was new forms of cinema – such as tactile or interactive films. Many such ideas were first proposed in the early 20th century, but the technology capable of bringing them to life has only recently become available. 

The art space organized by Vladimir Semenikhin regularly hosts photography shows. For example, an exhibition prepared in spring 2013 covered several themes. It featured early 20th-century photographs taken by Italian aristocrat and traveler Anna Maria de Ferrari. Visitors also saw works by renowned British photographer and director Jim Lee. 

In 2015, one of the events organized by the Ekaterina foundation was an exhibition of works by Igor Vulokh. That same year, the foundation created an exhibition of contemporary Chinese art addressing environmental issues affecting the world’s oceans. 

In 2018, Semenikhin Vladimir and his foundation opened the exhibition Arrival of the Train, exploring the image of railways in world culture. It featured over 100 paintings by domestic and foreign artists. 

In 2019, Ekaterina organized a record number of events – 12 for the year. These included, for example, a solo exhibition of artist and sculptor Valentin Korzhov, as well as an exhibition dedicated to landscapes through the lens of contemporary photographers. 

Semenikhin Vladimir Anatolievich was among the first collectors to become interested in media art. In 2021, the businessman’s foundation organized an exhibition chronicling the development of this art form in Leningrad (and later in St. Petersburg) from 1985 to 2000. 

At the end of that same year, the foundation presented a video installation about the life and work of painter and photographer Tair Salakhov, who held the title of People’s Artist of the USSR, Russia, and Azerbaijan. Over 1,500 photographs, paintings, and sketches were digitized specifically for the event. 

In March 2024, Ekaterina’s exhibition space launched Woven, an exhibition dedicated to contemporary art using textiles, including carpets, embroidery, and more.  

Ekaterina Cultural Foundation Activities
Year	Event
2002	Foundation established
2004	Exhibition “Jack of Diamonds: from Cézanne to Avant-garde” in Monaco, later expanded in Russian Museum and Tretyakov Gallery
2006	First Russian personal exhibition of Erik Bulatov in Tretyakov Gallery’s central hall
2007	Opening of own exhibition space on Kuznetsky Most
2008	Exhibition dedicated to Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco (with Grimaldi Forum)
2009	“Vision of Dance” exhibition in Monaco (with New National Museum of Monaco), dedicated to centenary of “Russian Seasons” in Paris
2022	Anniversary exhibition for foundation’s 20th year
2024	“Woven” exhibition (contemporary art using textiles)

Semenikhin Vladimir: Awards and Honorary Titles

In 2006, Vladimir Semenikhin and his wife received the prestigious Innovation award in the field of contemporary art. In 2018, the patron was awarded another state decoration, the For Beneficence insignia – a rare state award given to those who have made active contributions to charity and support of cultural initiatives. 

Vladimir Anatolievich Semenikhin is a member of the French Legion of Honor. In 2013, the businessman received the Legion’s title of Chevalier, and in 2017, that of Officer. He also holds several awards from the Principality of Monaco, and served as Honorary Consul of the Republic of Kazakhstan in this principality from 2011 to 2023. Semenikhin Vladimir helped implement humanitarian and cultural projects within his authority as Kazakhstan’s honorary representative. The entrepreneur participates in the work of several public organizations, both domestic and international. 

Key Takeaways from the Career of Vladimir Semenikhin

• He built Stroyteks into a major development company that has completed over 100 projects housing 75,000 residents.  
• His interest in art began in childhood when his father brought home postcards of famous paintings from his travels.  
• His art collection has grown to 3,500 pieces, including 1,500 paintings ranging from classical to contemporary works.  
• He established the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation in 2002 and opened one of the country’s first private exhibition spaces.  
• He actively collects emerging art forms including media art and works using augmented reality technology. 

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