Russia Cancels London Art Show
According to the Guardian newspaper:
Russia’s ongoing cultural dispute with Britain escalated dramatically today when officials in Moscow announced they were cancelling a major exhibition of Russian and French masterpieces at the Royal Academy in London.
The director of Moscow’s Pushkin museum said the exhibition – From Russia: French and Russian Art Masterpieces of 1870-1925 – would not take place. The show was due to open at the RA on January 26.
It was supposed to be one of the highlights of the RA’s year. Irina Antonova, the Pushkin’s general director, said that the paintings from four Russian state museums would not be loaned to the UK because of worries that they might be subject to legal claims and would not ultimately be returned to Russia.
I learned about this only last night,” Antonova said. “The British side did not guarantee the return of the exhibition, which includes masterpieces of Russian and French art from four Russian museums – the Puskhin Museum, the State Hermitage Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum.”
She added: “As negotiations on such guarantees have ended unsuccessfully, the decision on returning all the exhibits to Russia has been made.” The announcement takes place against a backdrop of deteriorating relations between Russia and Britain. It follows the Kremlin’s decision last week to close the British Council’s two regional offices in St Petersburg, Russia’s second city, and Yekaterinburg.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, admitted the closure was in response to Britain’s expulsion of four Russian diplomats in July over the Alexander Litvinenko affair. Russia had indicated the offices could stay open if Britain dropped its investigation into Litvenenko’s murder, a demand the UK government refused.
Today’s announcement is a severe blow to the Royal Academy, which had hoped the dispute could be resolved in time. Many of the 100-plus paintings have never been shown in Britain before.
They include Matisse’s Dance (11), measuring four metres by three metres, six Gaugins, a handful of important Cezannes, and works by Renoir and Picasso, including his extraordinary The Dryad, produced the year after he painted the groundbreaking Demoiselles D’Avignon.
The works – currently on show in Düsseldorf – will now be packed up and returned to Russia.
