In 2017, the centenary of the October Revolution, she contributed, by communicating some of her archives, to the Russian publication of “Black Cruise Carnets by Alexander Iacovleff, 1924-1925”, published by Iskusstvo Publishing House21 in Moscow. The cover of this book is a detail of Titi and Naranghe, daughters of chef Eki Bondo. This emblematic work of the Black Cruise, remained in France until 2010, was formerly part of the collection of his grandfather Georges-Marie Haardt.

Titi and Naranghe, daughters of chef Eki Bondo was painted in 1926 by Alexander Iacovleff, in his workshop, after the Black Cruise. For this work, which was shown by Sotheby’s in Paris, Moscow and Kiev before being sold on June 7, 2010 in London, C. Haardt de La Baume collaborated on the presentation of this masterpiece and wrote a translated Russian and English, here is an excerpt:

«TITI AND NARANGHE, EVALUATION OF A LOST PARADISE

This painting is fascinating because of its cleverly arranged composition, and its perspective effect that gives the impression of being at the heart of Chef Ekibondo’s village. In the foreground, on the threshold of Alexander Iacovleff’s hut, stand these two sisters, scarcely nubile and tenderly entwined. Titi, with lighter skin, on the left, is a mangbetou mother, when Naranghe is a mother matchaga.- The Matchaga were formerly the slaves of Mangbetou. But they have become richer than their old masters and have the most beautiful women and the best built villages. – The two sisters are capped at Mangbetou. Their skull takes the perfect form of an egg, a form that symbolized the power of the Pharaohs in Upper Egypt. To obtain this port of hieratic head, from the birth, the skull of the little girls is encircled by cords in hair of giraffe. Arrived at adulthood, the young women then wear the beautiful halo hairstyle of Nobosudru. But the chief Ekibondo complains to Alexander Iacovleff that his fifty-three women are rebelling and no longer want to wear this hairstyle which gives them too much work. ”