Vasily Vasilivich Konovalenko (Russian: Василий Васильевич Коноваленко, koʊ-noʊ-VA-ɪŋ-koʊ; 5 July 1929 – 27 January 1989) was a Soviet artist, known for creating unique three dimensional gemstone sculptures.

[1]: 7  After spending his first few years in Petrovka, the family moved to the mining center of Donetsk (which at that time was called Stalino), a larger and more cosmopolitan city in eastern Ukraine.

[1]: 7 In 1944 at the age of fifteen, he began work in the Donetsk National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre as an apprentice set designer.

ref) In 1945 he moved to the Stalino Theater for Opera and Ballet and the following year he enrolled in the art and architecture school at Donetsk Polytechnic Institute where he received specialized training.

[1]: 8  In October 1950 Konovalenko was drafted into the Soviet navy but he was discharged only five months later due to unspecified and unrecorded medical reasons.

[1]: 8  At some point during this service, he visited Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and he was taken by the artistic, historic and cultural environment of the city and he perceived career opportunities there.

[1]: 8  Shortly after his military discharge, he moved to Leningrad and he found employment with the prestigious Mariinsky Theater, then the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet (Государственный академический театр оперы и балета имени С.М.

[1]: 8 On April 25, 1957, the Mariinsky Theater opened Sergei Prokofiev's eighth and final ballet, The Tale of the Stone Flower, for which Konovalenko served as the lead set designer.

As a gem carver himself, Danilo becomes entranced with the stone flower and he sets out to make one of his own out of the beautiful black- and green-banded mineral malachite.

After a long period in which Danilo developed extraordinary gem carving skills, he again professes his love for Katarina.

During this period he also traveled extensively to visit mineral sources in the Urals, Siberia and Ukraine and to meet with geologists and mineralogists.

That was bad enough but in addition the example of Vasily's work that they chose to present was an early version of Bosom Pals (Brazhniki), a rather ill-advised choice as it depicted three men carousing, definitely not the Soviet Realism style then favored by the Communist Party.

Through mutual acquaintances, Anna obtained a meeting with Sergey Mikhalkov, a well-known and well-connected author.

The meeting was a complete success — Mikhalkov loved the sculptures and he immediately contacted Mikhail Solomentsev, chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Solomentsev also loved the pieces and within minutes he decided that an exhibition should be arranged and that it should be at the State Russian Museum in Leningrad.

An additional stroke of good luck was that the director of the State Russian Museum, Vasily Pushkarev, knew and admired Konovalenko's work.

The pieces in the exhibition included:[1]: 13 • Bosom Pals (Brazhniki) (1953) • Fishing (1965) • Grandma and Grandpa (1963) • Ice Fishing (1968) • Organ Grinder" (1967) • Tea Drinker (1971) • Tsar's Henchman (1970) • Warrior (1961) • Welcome (1959) • Zemfira (1973) Unfortunately, by approaching the authorities in Moscow, who in turn worked directly with Pushkarev at the State Russian Museum, the Konovalenkos bypassed local officials in Leningrad, most notably Grigory Romanov, the most powerful Communist Party official in Leningrad.

Ironically, at the same time, the American Armand Hammer offered to purchase the ten pieces in the exhibit for $150,000 each.

When the KGB investigation reached the desk of the Chief Prosecutor of the Soviet Union, he dismissed the case as being "cartoonish".

Unfortunately he soon discovered that much of his work would consist of making pieces for Communist Party officials to offer as gifts to colleagues and friends.

The ultimate solution would be to emigrate from the Soviet Union, but Konovalenko himself had no basis for applying for an exit visa.

Through Gregorian, diamond dealers Michael Kazanjian and Jack Ortman were introduced to Konovalenko and the three agreed to sponsor him.

Among Ortman's list of clients was Alvin Cohen,[6] a Denver-based construction magnate, who was a trustee of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Included were Barrel Bath; Bosom Pals; Hunter on the Mark; Ice Fishing; In the Sultry Afternoon I; In the Sultry Afternoon II; Laundress; Mower; On the Stroll; Painter; Prisoners; Spring; Sauna I: The Thin and the Fat; Sauna II: Woman; Toper; Walruses and Wanderer (or Old Believer).

[7] The Denver Museum of Nature and Science has far and away the largest public display of Konovalenko's sculptures in the world — 20 pieces.

Materials: Beloretsk quartz, agate, Indian agate, jade, tourmaline, gold-plated silver, silver, sapphire, zebra jasper, jasper conglomerate, horn, dinosaur bone (fossil), sodalite, septarian calcite, cacholong, ruby and petrified wood.

Materials: Beloretsk quartz, sapphire, agate, variscite, white jasper, pearl, malachite, pyrite, petrified wood, amethyst, aventurine and (goldstone).

Between June 1 and August 31, 2016 the first ever international exhibition of Konovalenko's work was held in the One-Pillar Chamber of the Patriarch’s Palace, The Kremlin, Moscow, Russia.

The exhibition included forty works in gems, bronze, silver and enamel from numerous sources around the world.

In addition there were more than forty graphic works, including theatric set designs, sketches for jewelry and gem-carving sculptures.