Artworks from exhibitions in museums in London and Paris cannot be returned to Russia

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris have faced difficulties in returning works of art to Russia that were provided for exhibitions by Russian museums and organizations. The reasons for this are the restrictions on air traffic and the sanctions imposed on Russia in connection with the war in Ukraine. Afisha.London magazine presents statements from leading European museums and tells what will happen to the Fabergé eggs and the collection of the Morozov brothers after the exhibitions close.

Fabergé: From Romance to Revolution is the first major exhibition dedicated to the legendary Russian jeweller and the importance of his obscure London branch. The exhibition runs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London until 8 May and showcases more than 200 impressive jewellry items to the public, including three Imperial Easter eggs, the Moscow Kremlin, the Alexander Palace and the Romanov Tercentenary, which have left the Moscow Kremlin Museums for the first time.

Alexander Palace, Moscow Kremlin, Romanov Tercentenary. Photo: Moscow Kremlin Museums

Also on display are items belonging to the Link of Times Foundation, whose founder, Viktor Vekselberg, is currently on the British government’s sanctions list. It is reported that after the closing of the exposition, the UK Department of Culture, together with the Victoria and Albert Museum, will consider other ways to return art to Russia.

Read more: Fabergé — the legendary jewellery firm in London and St. Petersburg

A similar problem was faced by the Louis Vuitton Foundation, where a grand exhibition of the Morozov brothers collection opened in November 2021. Since its opening, more than a million people have visited it and, due to increased demand, it has been extended until April 3, 2022. Then our editors managed to go to Paris for a few days: we stayed at the exhibition for about seven hours in a row and were completely delighted, having bought a special huge catalog in Russian, which the foundation had released especially for the exhibition.

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This is the first time that the Morozov collection has left Russia almost in its entirety. The exposition of the Parisian museum includes more than 200 masterpieces of fine art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, created by French and Russian masters. Among them are works by Manet, Rodin, Monet, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Cezanne, Sisley, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse, Derain, Picasso, as well as Vrubel, Golovin, Korovin, Malevich, Repin, Goncharova, Larionov, Serov, Mashkov, Konchalovsky, Saryan, Konenkov and other artists.

Once owned by the Morozov brothers, the works for the exhibition were mainly provided by three Russian museums: the State Hermitage Museum, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery, which borrowed 34 works at once. The provided paintings are of incredible value, and therefore the documents for their export were signed personally by the President of Russia.

Photo: Marc Domage/Fondation Louis Vuitton

The other day, representatives of the Parisian museum said that they do not know how they will return the exhibits to Russia after the exposition closes on April 3. “Maybe we will have to put the works in storage, or store in an embassy, or keep the collection in the security and safety box we have in the Foundation,” said Jean-Paul Claverie, a special adviser to Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH.

It should be noted that the problem of returning works of art to Russia is purely logistical. Now the main goal of museums is to ensure the safe delivery of works of art to Russia, and in the absence of direct flights, this is quite difficult to do. The head of the Russian arm of the art logistics firm ESI Frederic de Weck said that sending artworks by land could not be an alternative, as it became known that some trucks with Russian car numbers were attacked while traveling in Europe.

Cover photo: Luc Castel/Getty Images

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