#Vassil Bojkov Collection

[lionofchaeronea]

Theseus subdues the Bull of Marathon. Silver kylix by an unknown artist, ca. 445-440 BCE. Now in the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, Bulgaria. Photo credit: Gorgonchica/Wikimedia Commons.

[mariacallous]

A Bulgarian tycoon under house arrest, Vassil “The Skull” Bojkov, on Thursday announced a new political project, the “Centre” party, standing in opposition to Bulgaria’s current ruling coalition. 

“Bulgaria needs strong people with a sense of mission who can get the country out of its misery and lead it into the new world – something that those thieves can never do,” Bojkov said at the inauguration of the party in Sofia, attacking the current cabinet.

Party member Damyan Kachulski said the project comes at the right time geopolitically, with a “right-wing America, a strong Russia, a wise China, a reasonable Europe [and] a neighbouring strong Turkey” and it will seek the votes of “the silent majority”, referring to the low voter turnout in the 2021-2023 elections in Bulgaria. 

Dessislava Kovacheva, film producer and screenwriter of history-themed features, said the party stood against “anti-Bulgarian propaganda”, aims to attract “those who shiver when they hear the national anthem” and will deal with “the traitors who we know by name”.

Bojkov attended the launch event despite being under house arrest following his return to Bulgaria last August after a period of exile in Dubai where he relocated to evade various charges. They included being a leader of an organised crime group, wrongfully obtaining cultural and historical riches, murder threats and orchestrating assassinations. 

Since the 1990s, Bojkov has been associated with profitable businesses as well as alleged political influence and ties to organised crime. He started a chain of currency exchange offices and then expanded into the gambling industry in the 1990s, as well as into road construction, football and art collecting. 

The tables were turned in 2020, when his profitable lottery business was nationalised. He then became a vocal critic of ex-PM Boyko Borissov and his GERB party, as well as their partners from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. This was a major change in attitude: before his clashes with the GERB-led cabinet in 2020, Bojkovv had shied away from media attention or comments on political events. 

In Dubai, he started a party called Bulgarian Rise, which is now defunct and replaced by his new opposition project. 

Both Bojkov and his foes from GERB and Movement for Rights and Freedoms found themselves designated by the Global Magnitsky Act in 2021. 

Several tycoons of his generation who amassed wealth and influence in the 1990s have been assassinated in recent years, triggering speculation about a tectonic change in Bulgaria’s criminal underground.

In May last year, Krassimir “Kyro” Kamenov and his wife were shot dead in Cape Town, South Africa. Last August, just before Bojkov’s return, business figure Alexei Petrov was assassinated in Sofia. In an interview in September, Bojkov denied having any major ties to Petrov and Kamenov. 

The announcement of the new party comes when relations between the two blocs in Bulgaria’s ruling coalition are tense after just less than a year of rule. The planned rotation of Prime Ministers in March, which is now turning into a fight for power between GERB/UDF and We Continue the Change / Democratic Bulgaria, risks the stability of the cabinet. 

“We don’t want another snap election but we won’t allow our alliance to be a cover-up for diverting the coalition’s main priorities,” PM Nikolai Denkov of We Continue the Change said on Thursday. He will file his resignation on March 6 to make way for GERB’s Mariya Gabriel. 

On Monday, Denkov met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. 

[whencyclopedia]

EXHIBITION:  The Golden Fleece. The Quest of the Argonauts is now open to the public. (Bulgaria) 

ON 15 March 2018 the exhibition The Golden Fleece. The Quest of the Argonauts – Vassil Bojkov Collection was officially presented to the media. The initiative is part of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

Residents of and visitors to Sofia will have the opportunity to visit the event until the 30th of June 2018 in the National Gallery – The Palace.

Sixty-two selected cultural valuables will take the viewers on a fabulous adventure with the Argonauts. They include gold and silver eastern vessels, red-figure vases, ritual silver-gilt vessels, funeral offerings, ritual sets, etc. Sixteen artefacts will be presented to the general public for the first time. 

Please head to the Thrace Foundation for more information: https://www.thracefoundation.org/en/the-godlden-fleece-the-quest-of-the-argonauts-is-now-open-to-the-public/ 

[michael-svetbird]

#Repost @vassilbojkovcollection with @get_repost ・・・ On the opposite side of the bronze situla a young woman warrior – an Amazon advances to confront the Greek. She wears a short chiton, high soft boots, on her head – a long-crested Phrygian-Thracian helmet. She bears in her left hand a shield with a many rays star, two spears and a short knife. An amazing ram’s fleece lies under here feet - emanation of the legend of the Golden Fleece and the #Argonauts. . На срещуположната страна на бронзовата ситула млада жена воин - амазонка се придвижва напред срещу елина. Тя е облечена в къс хитон, във високи меки ботуши, на главата – трако-фригийски шлем с дълъг гребен. В лявата си ръка носи щит със звезда с много лъчи, две копия и къс нож. Изумителна кожа на овен лежи под стъпалата ѝ - еманация на легендата за Златното руно и аргонавтите. . The book of Dr. Athanasios Sideris ‘Metal Vases and Utensils in the Vassil Bojkov Collection’ (Vol. 1, Sofia, 2016) can be purchased with international shipping on Amazon or official website www.vassilbojkovcollection.bg . #VassilBojkovCollection #ThraceFoundation #MetalVasesAndUtensils #MetalVasesAndUtensilVolume1 https://www.instagram.com/p/B4uE8yRo1TO/?igshid=18hn6ktv9noqk

[searchengineus-blog]

The world-famous collection of over 3000 artefacts owned by Vasil Bojkov, the most popular Bulgarian businessman and collector of antiquities, is an abundance of pieces of different shapes, craftsmanship incorporated in them, combination of materials, and much more. Some of Bojkov’s ancient artefacts are plain beauty, literally, even without any decorations. Others compensate the lackRead More

[je06on-blog]

Vassil Bojkov

Vassil Bojkov

Vasil Bojkov collection of ancient artefacts is known for some of its extremely rare pieces - masterfulness, objects that reveal stories, tell legends...

[vesta-mebel]

Horse amunition from the Vassil Bojkov Collection . . . . . . . . . #VassilBojkovCollection #noshtnamuseitesofia2018 . #ancientthrace #horseamunition #mythology #museum #exhibiton #Bulgaria #Sofia #NationalArtGallery #ДревнаТракия #траки #тракийскоизкуство #колекцияВасилБожков #митология #тракийскисъдове #тракийскаторевтика #София #България #НационалнаХудожественаГалерия https://ift.tt/2KFvlDR

[mariacallous]

Exiled and charged Bulgarian mogul Vassil Bojkov has been arrested after surprisingly announcing earlier on Friday that he was flying back to Bulgaria from Dubai, where he was based the last three years. 

Bojkov was put under arrest for 72 hours on arrival at Sofia airport on 20 charges, including being a leader of an organised crime group, wrongfully obtaining cultural and historical riches, murder threats and orchestrating assassinations. 

He was travelling on a commercial flight (FZ1757 737) flown by FlyDubai airline and his sudden arrival caused an increased police presence at the airport. 

“Coming back at 15:30”, tweeted Bojkov, with the message followed by his usual hashtag, “Be healthy”. He then gave an update: “I’ve arrived. Now I have a meeting with the goons,” likely referring to the police outside.

His motives for coming back to Sofia, when he has been fleeing charges for three years, remain unclear. 

In 2020, under the GERB-led government of Boyko Borissov, Bojkov’s National Lottery business and art collection were nationalised and various charges were brought against him. Bojkov escaped to Dubai.

Sporting an elusive and mysterious image through his career, since 2020 Bojkov has been a vocal critic of Borissov, GERB member and then Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, as well as of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms MP and media mogul Delyan Peevski.

Bojkov’s version of events is that they have all tried to extort him for his lottery business through more and more expensive licences and threats to amend the code for gambling businesses. In 2020, he claimed to have given Borissov and Goranov 30 million euros between 2017 and 2019 in bribes. 

Goranov, Peevski and Bojkov have all been sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Act. 

In his statements, Bojkov has also targeted the recently ousted General Prosecutor Ivan Geshev who in 2020 brought the charges against him. 

On May 16, Bojkov posted on social media that he was ready to come back to Bulgaria under protected witness status and confide everything he knows about ex-PM and GERB leader Borissov’s corruption.

Who is Vassil ‘The Skull’ Bojkov?

Since the 1990s, Bojkov has been associated with profitable businesses as well as for alleged political influence and ties to organised crime. 

He was born in 1956 in Velingrad and graduated in mathematics from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia. He was known to Communist Bulgaria’s state security service for his gambling activities as early as 1985, when they were still illegal. 

His career took off after the change of regime in 1989. Bojkov started a chain of currency exchange offices and then expanded into the gambling industry in the 1990s, as well as into road construction and football.

From 1999 to 2006 he owned the football club CSKA and in March 2019 he became the owner of CSKA’s main rival, Levski.

In 2011, his name was mentioned in a diplomatic cable from the US embassy in Sofia, published by WikiLeaks, which focused on links in Bulgaria between business and crime. 

Following the 2020 nationalisation of his business, in early 2021, while in Dubai, Bojkov started a party of his own. Despite the initial buzz, “Bulgarian Summer” did not reach the threshold to enter parliament in Bulgaria’s 2021-2023 election cycle. 

Another notorious figure whose business enterprises are alleged to have crossed over to the criminal world since 1990s, Alexei Petrov, was assassinated on August 16.

[lionofchaeronea]

Ancient Greek silver phiale depicting the Amazonomachy.  Artist unknown; ca. 430-420 BCE.  Now in the Vassil Bojkov collection, Sofia, Bulgaria.  Photo credit: Gorgonchica/Wikimedia Commons.