"A table is a place where we eat, have fun or play, but also where we decide on wars or sign armistices. I hope that our table brings good luck and does not lead to an escalation war," said Renato Pologna, CEO of Italian furniture group OAK, in an interview with AFP.

The white lacquered piece of furniture decorated with gold leaf, six meters long, has made countless Internet users fantasize on social networks, turning it into a ping-pong table, ice dance floor or even a Leonardo fresco. da Vinci, "The Last Supper".

Renato Pologna shows a photo of the Kremlin table published in 1999, in Cantu near Como, on February 17, 2022 Piero CRUCIATTI AFP

This table, "a unique piece", was custom-made and delivered to the Kremlin in 1995 and was part of "the biggest order we have ever had", says Mr. Pologna.

His price?

"Ah, it was in liras at the time, a table of this kind would be worth around 100,000 euros today" and the total of the order "more than 20 million euros".

Certificate of Boris Yeltsin

Serene, with a small graying beard, standing straight behind his desk in his factory in Cantù near Lake Como, Renato Pologna exhibits the evidence: a photo of the table reproduced in a book on the Kremlin dating from 1999, a framed certificate signed the November 22, 1996 by the then Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, and above all, the detailed sketches of the object that has become cult.

Renato Pologna shows the certificate signed by Boris Yeltsin in 1996, in Cantu in northern Italy, February 17, 2022 Piero CRUCIATTI AFP

"I'm 100% sure of what I'm saying," quietly assures this 63-year-old Italian boss, commenting on the words of a retired Spanish cabinetmaker, Vicente Zaragoza, who claims, like him, to have delivered the table to the Kremlin, but "around 2005".

"It is a beech table from the Alps", declared to the Spanish radio Cope this inhabitant of Alcasser near Valencia, who claims to have recognized his work by seeing it on television, without however producing evidence.

"I imagine that, as in Spain they say they made a table identical to ours, they made a replica, but I don't know," commented Renato Pologna, anxious to avoid any controversy.

Renato Pologna, CEO of OAK, shows a sketch of the table produced in 1995 for the Kremlin, in Cantu, February 17, 2022 Piero CRUCIATTI AFP

After Emmanuel Macron, it was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, refusing like the French president to submit to a Russian anti-Covid test on his arrival in Moscow on Tuesday, who took his place at this now famous table.

- Waiting for George Clooney -

This work, which sits in the reception room for foreign guests, is only a small part of the work carried out by OAK in one of the Kremlin buildings: according to Mr. Pologna, it was a question of furnishing and decorating approximately 7,000 square meters on two floors.

"Abroad, the design and quality of high Italian craftsmanship are very popular," he said, explaining that his company supplied furniture, floors, woodwork and marble finishes on the walls. halls of the Kremlin.

The success of the oval table, the image of which has gone viral, has given him ideas: "with all this noise, it would be a good idea to put it back into production".

Renato Pologna shows one of his tables on display in his showroom in Cantu, near Como, February 17, 2022 Piero CRUCIATTI AFP

Among the clients of this company founded in the mid-1950s by Mr. Pologna's father and which has around fifty employees are sheikhs and royal families from Middle Eastern countries.

Former dictators such as the Libyan Muammar Gaddafi or the Iraqi Saddam Hussein have also set their sights on OAK's know-how.

As for Lake Como, "a fantastic place", it is a vast reservoir of customers, "with lots of Americans, Russians, Indians and Chinese who buy beautiful villas", according to Mr. Pologna.

Among them is George Clooney, who spends at least a month there a year, but who hasn't knocked on OAK's door yet...yet.

© 2022 AFP