The works of the Morozov collection belonging to Russian museums are back in Russia after an exceptional exhibition in Paris, announced Thursday, May 5 the Russian authorities, these creations being spared from the sanctions linked to Ukraine.
Some 200 paintings from this collection were exhibited for six months at the Louis-Vuitton Foundation, attracting 1.25 million visitors despite the pandemic.
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But the Russian offensive in Ukraine and the wave of sanctions falling on Russia had fueled fears that the return of works to Russian museums could be disrupted, in particular because of restrictions imposed in the logistics and transport sector.
Finally, 65 works from the Hermitage (St. Petersburg), as well as 67 from the Pushkin Museum (Moscow), 33 from the Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) and two from the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg) returned to Russian soil.
“The transport to the Russian Federation of all the paintings, graphic works and sculptures lasted almost 20 days, the last vehicles crossed the Russian border on May 2,”
Culture Minister Olga wrote on her Telegram account. Lyubimova.
She did not specify which route the works had to take in the absence of flights between the European Union and Russia and given road restrictions.
The entire Morozov collection is to be exhibited this summer in Moscow at the Pushkin Museum, she also announced.
Two works linked to Russian oligarchs remain in France for the time being due to the sanctions, as does a third
“for security reasons”
because it belongs to a Ukrainian museum.
The collection, exhibited at the Louis-Vuitton Foundation from September 22, 2021 to April 3, 2022, includes works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse and Russian painters such as Golovin, Malevitch, Melnikov, Répine, Serov... These masterpieces were brought together by two brothers, the Morozovs, industrialists passionate about modern art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
This is the first time that their collection has come out of Russia, on this scale, to be exhibited abroad.
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