This imposing Russian collection of modern art was exhibited in Paris at the Fondation Louis Vuitton until Sunday 3 April. The fate of some paintings was up in the air, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. At least two works would remain in France.
He is an imposing man, in a suit, who looks into the distance. L’Self-Portrait in Gray by the painter Piotr Konchalovski, nicknamed “the Russian Cézanne”, was seized by the French authorities. Its owner is called Petr Aven, he is an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Alfa Bank boss Petr Aven is on the European Union’s sanctions list.
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The situation is a little different for another painting, signed Valentin Serov, a great Russian portrait painter. It is held by a private foundation belonging to an oligarch who has just been added to the list of personalities under sanction. The case of this painting is under review “, indicates the French Ministry of Culture.
What is certain, however, is that another work by the Morozov collection will stay in France, but not because of the sanctions against Russia. This is another portrait of Valentin Serov, owned by the museum in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. There, it was the Ukrainian authorities who asked France to keep the painting temporarily because of the fighting in the region.
Return by road to Russia
The rest of the Morozov collection – the invaluable Gauguins, Cézannes, Van Goghs – is due to return to Russia in the coming days by road, across Europe, with air links cut off.
This is the first time that the Morozov collection has come out of Russia to be exhibited abroad. Around 200 works, including Impressionists, were exhibited from September 22 to April 3 at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, west of Paris. The exhibition brought together more than 1 million visitors. These masterpieces were brought together by the two brothers Mikhail and Ivan Morozov, industrialists passionate about modern art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Even within the framework of European sanctions, EU Member States can derogate from the ban on the transfer and export to Russia of works of art when these works have been loaned in the framework of cooperation official cultural relationship with Russia, the ministry said.