No subject

Masterpieces lined up for Royal Academy exhibition - if authorities can =
be
reassured they won't be seized=20

Charlotte Higgins, arts correspondent
Tuesday October 23, 2007
The Guardian=20


Dance (II), 1910, Henri Matisse. Photo: Royal Academy of Arts/PA:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2197032,00.html=20

More than 100 masterpieces of art from the great Russian museums - the =
vast
majority of which have never been seen in Britain - are being lined up =
for
an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, early next year, =
drawing
hundreds of thousands of visitors.
But while the collection of late 19th century and early 20th century =
French
and Russian painting will take its place among legendary RA shows such =
as
the 1999 Monet exhibition, the most popular show ever held in the UK, a
potential cloud hangs over the show: possible legal claims could be made =
on
the priceless pictures.

The backbone of the show is formed from works commissioned or bought by
Sergei Shchukin, one of the most important pre-revolutionary collectors =
in
Russia. After the revolution, his collection was nationalised, and =
between
1993 and 2004 his grandson, French citizen Andr=E9-Marc =
Delocque-Fourcaud,
lodged claims in Paris, Rome and Los Angeles for various works that had
belonged to his ancestor. The claims failed.
The British government has been asked by the RA to send a letter to the
Russian authorities assuring them that the works loaned to the UK will =
be
protected from seizure by companies with a financial claim against the
Russian state.

Such a document is deemed necessary since, in 2005, paintings loaned to =
a
Swiss gallery were impounded after a claim on the Russian state by a
Geneva-based trading company. The works were eventually released and =
sent
back to Russia; but there was a halt on loans from Russian state =
collections
to Britain since the UK at present has no law of "immunity from =
seizure",
protecting cultural loans from this type of action.

Legislation is in progress, and should come into effect early next year,
according to a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
(DCMS), though it will probably not have received royal consent by the =
time
the exhibition opens in January.

The letter to the Russian authorities assuring them that the billions of
pounds worth of art they have loaned is safe from seizure has been sent.
Charles Saumarez Smith, the RA's secretary and chief executive, said it =
was
"fully accepted by the Russians".


However, the "letter of comfort" meant to assure the RA that the works =
are
safe from seizure has not been sent out because the British government =
is
not yet satisfied that the institution has confirmed "that all the
appropriate due diligence checks have been carried out on the works,"
according to the DCMS spokesman.

He admitted the situation was confusing, and that it was also untested =
in
British law. The due diligence checks, he said, involved the RA checking
that the paintings did not have a "doubtful provenance".

The centrepiece of the exhibition as planned will be Matisse's Dance =
(II),
measuring four metres by three metres and perhaps the most striking =
modern
work in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. There will also be =
six
Gauguins, a handful of important C=E9zannes, works by Renoir and =
Picasso's
extraordinary The Dryad, a work he produced the year after he painted =
the
groundbreaking Demoiselles D'Avignon.

All formed part of Shchukin's collection; he commissioned Matisse's =
Dance
(II) for his mansion's staircase, nearly cancelling the commission when =
he
got cold feet about the propriety of displaying vast naked figures about =
his
home, a potential source of corruption to his young daughters. In his =
dining
room, on one wall, hung 16 Gauguins: he called them his iconostasis.

As well as showing masterpieces of French impressionism and
post-impressionism, the exhibition - called From Russia: French and =
Russian
Master Paintings 1870-1925 - will bring to London great works by Russian
painters. While absorbing influences from Paris, in many cases directly
through the great collections of Shchukin, these artists created work =
that
was anything but derivative.

The Bath of the Horse, 1912, by Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, for example, is a =
work
perhaps as influenced by early Russian religious painting as by western
European modernism. "It is one of the sacred objects we have had to =
extract
with great difficulty from the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow," said Sir
Norman.

The exhibition is supported at the highest levels, the RA emphasised.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and the prime minister, Gordon =
Brown,
have been asked to contribute forewords to the exhibition catalogue.

That the RA and co-hosts of the show in Dusseldorf have been able to =
extract
such key works from Russia's four most important museums, the State =
Pushkin,
the State Tretyakov, the State Hermitage and the State Russian, is put =
down
by MaryAnne Stevens, director of academic affairs at the RA, to "a shift =
in
culture on the part of our Russian colleagues". Others have put it down =
to
the financial clout wielded by the show's sponsor, E.ON, the power and =
gas
company, which has strong Russian links. Yesterday they declined to put =
a
figure on their contribution to the Russian museums.

=B7 From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925, opens at =
the
RA, London, on January 26

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/