MOSCOW, November 24 - RAPSI, Diana Gutsul. The court will hear on December 15 a lawsuit filed by the heirs of businessman and private art collector Mikhail de Boire over the right to inherit a collection of icons, lawyer Kirill Belsky told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) on Thursday.

De Boire's widow and his three children were expected to be granted the ownership certificate six months after his death. However, one of de Boire's ex-wives, Lyubov Yelizavetina, took several icons from an exhibition at Moscow's Tsaritsyno Palace Complex. 75 icons from de Boire's collection are held at the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow after Yelizavetina donated them to the museum. The other 62 icons are held at the ROSIZO State Museum and Exhibition Center. His other masterpieces have yet to be founded.

De Boire's widow Tatyana and his three children filed a lawsuit for the right to inherit the collection last year. Her lawyer said they will respect the deceased's will, and will not share or sell the collection. The court decided to reconsider the case after it involved the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts as a third party in the case on November 11.

Mikhail de Boire's collection of icons is one of the largest private icon collections in Russia. The collection includes 192 icons worth 70 million euro.