Collecting can be an unseemly passion.


Aleksei Bakhrushin, the renowned Russian collector of theater memorabilia, had a reputation around Moscow for something like ambulance-chasing: He would arrive at the homes of dying actors several steps ahead of the priest. How else could he be sure of gathering the departing artist's effects for posterity?


Bakhrushin's unabashed relentlessness is forgivable, however, for it resulted in a theater lover's treasure-trove -- the Bakhrushin Theater Museum, now celebrating its centennial with four special showings. By the time he died in 1929, Bakhrushin had gathered 40,000 portraits, documents, set designs, photos and other objects pertaining to theater, opera and ballet -- from a piano that accompanied Fyodor Chaliapin to a glove that Maria Yermolova wore. The museum, which was also Bakhrushin's home, now catalogs 1,380,000 items.


An heir to a leather-processing empire, Bakhrushin was a hard-nosed businessman in making his acquisitions. He held out for a year against the demands of a distant relative of the first great Russian actor, Fyodor Volkov. Finally, the relative gave in and handed over -- for Bakhrushin's original offer of 300 rubles -- one of the most prized articles in the collection: the royal document conferring noble status on Volkov, which dates from the mid-1700s.


Loathe to fritter away money on relatives and friends expecting gifts, Bakhrushin spent his holidays in Europe, where he could spend his money on acquisitions instead. On one of these trips he made an invaluable discovery in a Paris antique shop -- a book published in 1652 on the French "Ballet de Roi." Later, an official from Paris' Grand Opera visiting Moscow would tell Bakhrushin that there was not another copy of the book in all of France.


Many artists gave the collector their mementos. A Vladivostok opera diva sent him the menu, written on a fan, from an apr?s-theater banquet arranged for her by appreciative officers during the Russo-Japanese War.


Bakhrushin especially loved ballet, and his discerning eye could easily spot a future star -- and future acquisitions for his museum. So when two young dancers appeared at his door one day introducing themselves as Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina, Bakhrushin gladly ushered them in. Pavlova would later bestow upon him a pair of her pointe shoes, autographed.


The collector liked to present gifts to the artists, though on at least one occasion his presents raised eyebrows. The museum's archive contains a 1904 newspaper column recording high society's dismay at Bakhrushin's gift of 60 elegant shaving sets for the Bolshoi corps de ballet. With the advent of more revealing costumes, the theater had ordered dancers to shave their underarms. Attentive to every detail of theater life, Bakhrushin had given the ballerinas a gift that was practical and stylish, but too indelicately personal in society's view.


Among the museum's treasures are the diaries of the last director of the Imperial Theaters, Vladimir Telyakovsky. The 50 notebooks contain some unflattering remarks about Bakhrushin, characterizing him as a "sly Moscow merchant who considers the theater a public house" -- perhaps because of Bakhrushin's romantic successes among the artists. Believing that history should not be edited, the collector did not censor anything in the documents he gathered.


After the revolution, Bakhrushin, more interested in collecting and preserving than in owning, was allowed to remain as director of the museum. Continuing his old pursuits, Bakhrushin braved gunfire in the dark streets of Moscow in the '20s to gather memorabilia from a dying actor of the Maly Theater. With no gasoline, no car, no sleigh and no driver, Bakhrushin used a sled to haul back the treasures of old programs, playbills and letters.


Perhaps the ultimate testimony to Bakhrushin's fanatical devotion to the theater occurred on his wedding day: Hearing that the legendary actress Yermolova was to celebrate her 25th year on the stage while he would be honeymooning, Bakhrushin broke off flowers from his new bride's bouquet and asked that they be presented to the actress with his apologies for not attending.


Bakhrushin Museum centennial exhibits:


?Aleksei Bakhrushin and Moscow, at the Bakhrushin Museum, 31/12 Ulitsa Bakhrushina, from 12 P.M. to 7 P.M. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Nearest metro: Paveletskaya.


?Theater Relics. Never-before-displayed sketches of sets, actors' personal belongings, documents. At the Pushkin Literary Museum, 55/32 Stary Arbat, from 11 A.M. until 6 P.M. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Nearest metro: Smolenskaya.


?The Russian Ballet Seasons in Paris. Sculptures, set designs, costumes. At the Museum of the Revolution, 21 Tverskaya Ulitsa, daily from 10 A.M. until 6 P.M., Sundays until 5 P.M. Closed Monday. Nearest metro: Okhotny Ryad.


?Russian Theater Avant-Garde from the 1910s to the 1930s. At the Moscow Gallery, 20 Kuznetsky Most, daily from noon to 7 P.M. Closed Sunday. Nearest metro: Kuznetsky Most.