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Priceless masterpieces stuck in limbo as Russian sanctions bite

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Home News World Europe

Priceless masterpieces stuck in limbo as Russian sanctions bite

May 24, 2022
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Priceless masterpieces stuck in limbo as Russian sanctions bite
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Dozens of masterpieces loaned between European and Russian museums are stuck in limbo amid a raft of sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.

From 16th-century paintings from the Louvre being held at Moscow’s French embassy to hundreds of pictures from the famous Morozov Collection being secretively trucked across the Continent, the combination of suspended flights, closed borders and punitive measures imposed on Vladimir Putin’s government has upended the art world.

Major European museums are now facing problems trying to return Russian works or get back their own pieces, while important future loans have been cancelled.

The Louvre confirmed to the Telegraph that they have six works stuck in Moscow, including a painting of Francis I from the studio of Jean Clouet, the French Renaissance master, and 17th-century pistols.

“As a sign of solidarity, France – the Ministry of Culture – has decided to withdraw the works on loan,” a spokesman said in an apparent reference to Ukraine.

However, when asked how they could be repatriated when flights are suspended, she said: “French artworks are at the French embassy.”

Russian officials estimated that about 400 pieces of art in 27 countries were on loan at foreign museums at the start of the war, including some of Russia’s best avant-garde art in Paris and Seoul.

Jittery about never getting it back because of the inevitable sanctions, Russia’s culture ministry asked for everything to be returned.

But that has been easier said than done and the process has been shrouded in mystery.

Earlier this month, Finland authorised the return of Russian loans worth roughly £35 million after they were initially stopped on the border owing to EU sanctions against Russia.

Mikhail Shvydkoi, Putin’s envoy for global cultural ties, has said that part of the Morozov Collection – some 200 masterpieces of French and Russian art loaned in a partnership with various Russian museums – had arrived in Russia from Paris, where it had been on display at the Louis Vuitton Foundation.

“The art is being transported from Paris as we speak. The first lorry is already in Russia,” he told The Art Newspaper Russia.

Yet Morozov exhibition organisers at the Foundation could not confirm the whereabouts of those masterpieces, which include paintings by Henri Matisse and Kazimir Malevich.

Similarly, a major Russian exhibition in Seoul featuring masterpieces by Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky wrapped up recently, but returning the works has been a struggle because of the lack of flights.

Olga Glotova, of the Russian embassy in Seoul, told the Tass news agency that experts from Russia’s Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts were in South Korea preparing it for delivery.

She said they had foundd a way around the transport issues, but she was not at liberty to divulge the route because of security concerns.

For British institutions with Russian works, the situation has proved a major dilemma. The Victoria & Albert Museum is not withdrawing 13 Russian loans from its Faberge exhibition, which has now finished, sparking criticism from Konstantin Akinsha, a Ukrainian-American art historian and curator based in Italy.

“It’s a big mistake,” he said. “The best thing they could do is send them back or just put them in storage. They’re still Russian property. No one is confiscating them. Why put the V&A’s reputation at risk? We have to play by moral rules.”

Brian Allen, a former trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, is a board member of the Hermitage Foundation UK, a charitable body that has suspended fundraising activities over the invasion.

He said: “Under the UK Immunity from Seizure legislation, loans should be returned to the Russian state, but the problem may be getting them back since there are currently no flights from the UK, or from most of Europe, to Russia. In the past, works were often flown to Finland and then travelled on to Russia by road, but I believe the Finns have also closed their border with Russia.”

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, has cancelled dozens of Russian loans for a major exhibition looking at the relationship of the Russian Avantgarde to Russian icons. It had been planned over many years. 

Alexander Sturgis, its director, said: “There’s simply no way we can get the paintings out of the country. I’m pessimistic as to when we might be able to do such a thing again. Our argument is with Putin and his government, and not with the Russians and Russian culture. It’s just a great shame.”

Among other works affected is Picasso’s Young Woman, loaned from the Hermitage for an innovative exhibition inspired by this Cubist masterpiece at the Alda Fendi Foundation in Rome.

Asked how it will be returned, Raffaele Curi, the foundation’s artistic director, said: “The truth is that none of us knows anything. We do not know the actual measures. I believe that, as things stand, the artwork will remain in Italy for a long time.”

The issue over art insurance

Although there is an exception for the transfer of cultural goods to Russia in EU sanctions, there is confusion over insurance.

All insurances for Russians and Russian entities on a sanction list have been suspended, according to Adam Prideaux, the managing director of Hallett Independent, an art insurance broker. 

He said: “Insurers can neither receive premiums, nor pay claims. Furthermore, the new package of sanctions against Russia includes luxury goods and unfortunately, fine art falls under this bracket. 

“There is no clear definition as to what constitutes Russian affiliated risks and therefore, as it stands at the moment, nearly all specialist art insurers are not renewing nor accepting new business from any Russian individual or entity whether sanctioned or not.”

Alexander Herman, the director of the Institute of Art & Law, said: “It is accepted as a custom of international law that state-owned cultural objects are protected from seizure when travelling abroad for the purposes of an exhibition… 

“Most insurance contracts have an exclusion for ‘war’ but, unless the country in which the works are located is directly engaged in the war – i.e. direct military intervention – I’m not sure the exclusion would be triggered. It would depend on the specific cover.”

Many are wary of speaking publicly about the cultural boycott of Russia. Despite the invasion horrors, they still feel part of the same arts community.

The post Priceless masterpieces stuck in limbo as Russian sanctions bite appeared first on The Telegraph.

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