Russia's new super-rich want to re-connect to a pre-Soviet cultural heritage and have been using their vast fortunes to bring native art and the best of the rest of the world to the mother country for ownership or display.

Russian oligarchs have made headlines bidding millions of dollars to bring cultural icons back home, Russians are in the majority at foreign auctions of their countrymen's art, and big auction houses are setting up shop in Moscow.

"Art and cultural symbols are the best way for Russians to identify with their cultural heritage, which is considered imperial and splendid," said Mikhail Kamensky, director of auction house Sotheby's Russian division.

The London-based auction house displayed pre-Bolshevik paintings last week near the Kremlin to prospective buyers, of which many are Russian.

The collection, which includes majestic, somber scenes of empty Russian landscapes by the artist Arkhip Kuindzhy, will go on sale in mid-April in New York.

Kamensky said that 80-90% of traditional Russian art at Sotheby's is bought by Russians, who either live in the country or abroad. They also buy about 70% of contemporary Russian art.

"It (art) is to present themselves to the world. It is used to bridge the gap between 19th century Russia and 21st century Russia," Kamensky said.

Sotheby's, which sold a contemporary Russian art collection featuring a miniature Lenin in a setting sun for a record £8.35 million last month in London, opened its Moscow branch last May.

Russia is undergoing its longest economic boom for more than a generation, fuelled by record oil prices and the new wealthy enjoy lavish lifestyles with multiple houses and English-speaking nannies for their children. Alongside that trend not experienced since Tsarist times nearly 100 years ago, thirst for art has also resurfaced.

Lawyer-come-millionaire and music enthusiast Maxim Viktorov purchased a rare Italian violin from Sotheby's in February for a record £3.9 million.

The Guarneri, which was made in 1741 and been plucked by European composers throughout its long history, was played a fortnight ago to a hand-picked audience in Moscow Conservatory's grand hall by Israeli virtuoso Pinchas Zukerman.

"Maxim (Viktorov) had a vision . . . to bring back the standard and quality that Russia had many years ago," said Zukerman, who is the musical director of Ottawa's National Orchestra.

"This is his way of expressing his gratitude to being Russian," he said the night he played the unique instrument.

Moscow-London links
Two oligarchs with a penchant for soccer clubs are also active participants on the artistic scene, swapping Russian and English art between the countries' capitals.

Alisher Usmanov, metals tycoon and owner of almost a quarter of London's Arsenal football club, recently paid for English artist JMW Turner's work to be displayed at Moscow's Pushkin museum.

Works by the 18th century English Romantic painter will be shown to Muscovites for the first time since 1975 from November.

Last year in London, Usmanov snatched up the entire art collection belonging to late musician Mstislav Rostrapovich for a reported £25 million, promising to return it to Russia.

"It's patriotic (to buy Russian art), but of course you can't be patriotic if you don't have products," said Olga Sloutsker, who founded an elite chain of fitness clubs 15 years ago and counts several oligarchs in her close circle of friends.

Billionaire and owner of London's Chelsea football club Roman Abramovich has also sponsored exhibitions showing the work of Russian artist Max Penson.

His photographs, showing Uzbekistan adjusting to communism in the 1930s, have been shown at several outlets in London.