What do you buy the Russian millionaire who has everything? Western luxury goods are now too common to turn Muscovite heads and fail to indulge a new fashion for patriotism. World Of New Russians, a new boutique in Moscow's swankiest underground shopping mall, is filling this gap in the market, offering folk arts and crafts with a modern twist.
"Palekh" wooden trays, traditionally decorated with scenes from rural Russia, now depict prostitutes in a sauna, a round of golf with friends at the country club or a Mercedes in the dacha drive for about US$600 (£435).
"Gzhel" porcelain figurines of Pushkin's fairytale characters have been replaced by "Bratoks" (Goodfellas) with ample guts and mobile phones, worth US$210 each.
For the more cerebral new Russian, there is a chess set with a godfather replacing the king, a moll as the queen, two Mercedes as knights and bodyguards as pawns (price negotiable).
The faultless finish on all the goods reflects centuries of Russian craftsmanship but the scenes portrayed confirm post-Soviet greed and rapacity. Bored with Gucci and tired of Versace, monied Muscovites want expensive goods that reflect their lifestyle.
"Nobody wants to buy a porcelain horse or a lacquer box with a church on it. That's for tourists," says the boutique's owner, Mr Grigory Baltser. "Modern people like me want something which is more relevant to the new age we are building and living in."
Mr Baltser (33) made his first fortune importing luxury Western goods to new Russians who grew rich on dodgy privatisations and government connections. But then boredom set in.
"Every Christmas, every birthday I get Cartier wallets. It's so boring. And if I used all the Dupont pens I've been given I could probably write a new War and Peace," he says.
He expects to make his second fortune from other rich-but-bored consumers seeking home-made extravagances.
"Now we understand that in buying only Western things, Western labels, we were losing our nationality. My new artefacts give us back our Russian personality."
Other Russians might say that without Mr Baltser and his customers, the country's personality would not need restoring.
For the old women supplementing irregular and negligible pensions by selling cigarettes and bootleg vodka on the streets above the shop, wealth is proof of criminal activity and "new Russian" is a term of abuse. But Mr Baltser's customers accept the label with pride.
"We are only doing what you do in the West," says Mr Alexei Petrov, a timber merchant, buying a gift for his Finnish partner. "Sure, there are poor people in Russia but that's no reason why the rich shouldn't buy art.
"During the glasnost era only cheap Gorbachev and Yeltsin dolls were produced," Mr Baltser says. "The cultural legacy I leave will be much richer."
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