They Won't Let Matisse Go to Britain
Director of the Pushkin State Museum Irina Antonova that the “From Russia: French and Russian Masterpieces of Painting 1870-1925” will not travel to the Royal Academy of Art in London but will return to Russia from Dusseldorf, where it is located now because Britain will not guarantee the works protection from third-party claims. Works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso, Kandinsky, Malevich and Petrov-Vodkin from the Pushkin Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, Hermitage and Russian Museum were to go on display in London on January 26.
Among the works is The Dance by Henri Matisse, commissioned by Russian collector Sergey Shchukin, and it is one of the reasons for the commotion. The heirs of Shchukin have tried to regain artworks nationalized after the Russian Revolution before. So officials said that the exhibit would not go to London until Russia was guaranteed protection from third-party claims. At that time, Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky said that Britain had drafted special law that would be passed in time to allow the exhibit to go there.
The British Embassy in Moscow, referring to a statement by the British Department for Culture, Media and Sport, stated that everything possible had been done to protect the work from encroachment. It is protected by the 1978 State Immunity Act and insured for £900 million. The diplomats did not say whether or not the painting was protected from court actions, however, which is the source of Russian officials' concern.
Anatoly Vilkov, deputy head of the Federal Supervisory Service for Mass Communications, Communications and Protection of the Cultural Heritage (Rossvyazokhrankultura), which has final say in whether or not to send the exhibit to England, points out that the courts are separate from the government, so government guarantees are insufficient.
Norman Rosenthal, director of the Royal Academy of Arts, told Kommersant that the academy had written confirmation from the collectors' heirs that they would not file suit for the painting. “I want to remind you,” he added, “that Great Britain recognized the Soviet Union, and that means it recognized that the nationalized works of art belong to the government. There is no danger that the pictures will not be returned.” Vilkov says, however, that The Guardian newspaper has stated that the Shchukin heirs will seek the painting in court.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 20, 2007
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