“An art collection is not like an oligarch’s yacht. The minister of culture must make a clear statement on these subjects,” she said. “The course of action must be established at a high level. “It would be very damaging, especially as we are already in a situation in which private collectors and public institutions are already reluctant to lend to museums in a foreign country,” he said.Ĭatherine Morin-Desailly, a lawmaker from the French Senate’s culture committee, said the government must take a clear stance on this issue and hoped that art would be left out of the conflict. The French culture ministry declined to comment on the issue, noting that it was “premature” to take a position.Īny action by Paris against the Morozov paintings would undermine trust between art institutions around the world, Anfruns warned. However, French authorities usually provide the owner of the painting with guarantees that it will be protected, said Julien Anfruns, an art lawyer and a former official at France’s culture ministry. For example, the collection includes one of the four self-portraits by Piotr Kontchalovski, which belongs to Petr Olegovich Aven, “ one of Vladimir Putin’s closest oligarchs.” Aven is on the EU’s sanctions list. The government confirmed that paintings owned by museums and foundations and displayed at the Morozov exhibition are covered by that protection.īut that does not cover paintings owned by Russian individuals. The art of diplomacyīut a French official stressed that the Morozov collection could not be seized and that there is “a false debate” around it.įrench law prohibits the seizure of artworks loaned by foreign cultural institutions to be exhibited in France. Six months on from the opening of the Morozov exhibit, economic sanctions against Russia and Russian oligarchs have led to questions in France on whether the exhibition should be kept going or whether the government could even seize the paintings. In 2017, when Macron and Putin met in person for the first time, the first thing they did was to launch an art exhibition on Russian czar Peter I at the Palace of Versailles, and to start the so-called Trianon Dialogue, an initiative to intensify cultural and economic ties between Paris and Moscow. The Morozov exhibition is not the first attempt to boost Franco-Russian diplomacy through stronger cultural ties. Putin wrote that the exhibition “strengthened the traditionally special relationship between our countries.” But there have been concerns about the return of the pictures, which is set to take place by land rather than air due to the current restrictions on air travel between Europe and Russia.Macron and Putin even wrote the preface for the exhibition’s catalog. Most of the Morozov collection is now held by the Tretyakov and Pushkin museums in Moscow and the State Hermitage museum in Saint Petersburg rather than by private collectors. The highlights of the collection include works by Impressionists and other European masters rarely shown abroad, as well as great works of Russian art. It is now being dismantled and the some 200 pictures returned to the museums in Russia where most of them are usually kept. The exhibition was on show at the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris from late September until April 3. He is already targeted by UK sanctions over his shareholding in a fertilizer company. The source added to AFP that this picture is owned by the Magma foundation linked to Viatcheslav Kantor. Meanwhile, France is currently assessing the situation concerning a third picture owned by a private foundation linked to another Russian oligarch who is being added to the sanctions list, the ministry said. It emphasized that this was “at the request of the Ukrainian authorities”. The second picture, a painting of Margarita Morozova by the Russian painter Valentin Serov belongs to the Fine Arts museum in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and will stay in France “until the situation in the country allows its return in security,” said the ministry. remains targeted by an asset freeze,” the ministry said in its official statement. This painting “will remain in France so long as its owner. Aven, a billionaire financier and banker, is seen as close to President Vladimir Putin and is the target of Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A source close to the issue, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the first picture is a self portrait by Russian artist Pyotr Konchalovsky owned by the Russian oligarch Petr Aven.
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