Russian Art Might Come To RA

Russia may give the go-ahead to a London art exhibition of works from its museums after the U.K. government pledged to speed up passage of legislation protecting art works from seizure. The Russian authorities canceled the art show last week because they said the U.K. failed to offer sufficient guarantees that the works would be immune from third-party confiscation. "We are ready to send the art exhibition to London if the new law is in place in time," Natalia Uvarova, a spokeswoman at the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, said by telephone from Moscow today. The show, "From Russia: French and Russian Masterpieces, 1870-1925," is sponsored by E.ON AG, Germany's biggest utility, and is at Duesseldorf's Museum Kunst Palast until Jan. 6. It was slated to open at London's Royal Academy of Arts on Jan. 26. The State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts were among four Russian art museums set to lend to the Royal Academy some 120 paintings by 20th-century French and Russian artists such as Cezanne, Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky and Malevich. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art