In 1834, Anatoly Demidov gave Karl Brullov's The Last Day of Pompeii to Nicholas I as a gift. The article interprets this incident in the context of Demidov's complex relationship with the emperor, understood as an implicit polemic dialogue about the symbolic values. By shedding light on circumstances that have not been taken into account by either prior historians of the Demidov family or specialists in Brullov's work, the dual meaning of Demidov's gesture of a gift is revealed. Among other things, attention is given to the intention of Demidov's little-studied "Letters on Russia." His activities as an art patron and as the largest collector of contemporary French painting are examined from a new point of view.