Gelu Voican Voiculescu

Gelu Voican Grigoriță Voiculescu is a Romanian politician, diplomat, visual artist and esotericist, who achieved national recognition during the anti-communist revolution of 1989. A scion of the boyar aristocracy, he was persecuted during the early stages of the communist regime, which objected to his "reactionary" views, his modernist paintings, and his likely participation in the 1956 students' movement. He was made to interrupt his studies and sent to work as a welder, but finally accepted at the University of Bucharest, where he obtained certification as a geological engineer. In the late 1960s, upon the start of Nicolae Ceaușescu's communist rule, he was also allowed to exhibit his drawings. However, the regime came to suspect or frame him as a spy; in these circumstances, Voiculescu crossed into the Hungarian People's Republic, attempting to defect into Austria. Captured and handed to the Romanian Securitate, he was unusually released from custody - prompting enduring speculation that the Securitate recruited him as its informant or agent. This reading was partly confirmed by Securitate personnel and post-revolutionary authorities, but consistently denied by Voiculescu himself.