The image of the gigantic Oval shaped tablewho kept at a distance Vladimir Putin from Emmanuel Macron during a tense meeting regarding Ukraine and that has traveled around the world, is the pride of a small family business in northern Italy, which claims its paternity.
“A table is a place where we eat, have fun or play, but also where we decide wars or sign armistices. I hope that our table brings good luck and does not lead to an escalation of war,” he says in an interview with AFP. Renato PolognaCEO of the Italian furniture factory OAK.
The white lacquered piece of furniture, decorated with gold leaves and six meters long, has unleashed the fantasy of countless Internet users on social networks, turning it into a ping-pong table, an ice dance floor or even part of the fresh from Leonardo da Vinci“The Last Supper”.
The table is “a unique piece”, it was made to measure and delivered to the Kremlin in 1995 as part of “the biggest order we’ve ever received,” says Pologna.
Its price? “Oh, it was paid for in lire, a table like this costs around 100,000 euros ($113,000) today” and the total order was “more than 20 million euros,” almost $23 million.
– Certificate of Boris Yeltsin –
Serene, with a short gray beard, behind the desk of his factory in Cantù, near Lake Como, Renato Pologna shows as evidence a photo of the table reproduced in a book on the Kremlin, dated 1999, a framed certificate signed November 22, 1996 by the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin and, above all, sketches with the details of the object that has become a cult.
“I am 100% sure of what I am saying,” the 63-year-old Italian businessman maintains in a low voice, commenting on the statements of the retired Spanish cabinetmaker, Vicente Zaragoza, who claims to have delivered the table to the Kremlin “around 2005”.
“It’s a beech wood table from the Alps,” the Spaniard from Alcácer, near Valencia, assured the Spanish station Cope, who claims to have recognized his work when he saw it on television, without providing evidence.
“Like in Spain they say they made a table identical to ours, I imagine it might be a copy, but I don’t know,” said Pologna, who wants to avoid any controversy.
After Emmanuel Macronit was the turn of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who took his place at the now famous table on Tuesday, since as the French president he refused to undergo a Russian anti-covid test upon arrival in Moscow.
– Waiting for George Clooney –
The piece of furniture, which is located in the reception room for foreign guests, is only a small part of the work done by OAK for one of the Kremlin buildings. According to Pologna, they furnished and decorated approximately 7,000 square meters of the Russian government headquarters, spread over two floors.
“Outside, the design and high quality of Italian craftsmanship are very popular,” he stressed, explaining that his factory supplied furniture, floors, wood and marble finishes for the Kremlin’s halls.
The success of the oval table, whose image has gone viral, has given him ideas: “With all this noise it would be good to put it back into production.”
Among the clients of the company, founded in the mid-1950s by the father of Poland and which has regarding fifty employees, including sheikhs and royal families from various countries in the Middle East.
Also former dictators, such as the Libyan Muammar Gaddafi or the Iraqi Saddam Hussein, who admired the quality of OAK.
Lake Como, “a fantastic place”, is also a great reserve of clients, “because many Americans, Russians, Indians and Chinese have bought beautiful residences”, says Pologna. Among them is George Clooney, who spends there at least a month a year, but hasn’t knocked on OAK’s door yet…for now.
-The encounter-
Russia said that the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, He kept a distance from his Russian counterpart in his meeting on the crisis in Ukraine because the French president refused to undergo a covid test in the Kremlin.
The images released on Monday Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin each one sitting on the edge of a six-meter white table generated an avalanche of comments and many pointed out the coldness that the images revealed.
On the internet, the spread photo of the meeting generated a cascade of ridicule and comparisons with the distance maintained with other meetings with foreign dignitaries, such as the Argentine president Alberto Fernández and the president of Kazakhstan, Kassym Jomart Tokayev.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, indicated that the decision to use this furniture was due to the fact that the French leader refused to undergo a PCR test in the Russian presidency.
“Conversations with some are held at a long table, the distance (from the table) is regarding six meters,” the spokesman said, answering a reporter’s question.
“This is because some follow their own rules, they do not cooperate with the host,” the official said, noting that in these cases an additional health protocol is imposed to protect the Russian president and his guests. The spokesman denied a political background.
Macron traveled to Russia to try to de-escalate tensions between Moscow and Ukraine, following a massive movement of Russian troops on the border. (AFP)
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