MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Culture Agency said on Thursday that Britain has not provided sufficient guarantees against potential legal claims to allow an exhibition of paintings from Russian museums to go ahead in London next month.
The exhibition, entitled 'From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings' was due to open at the Royal Academy of Arts on January 26 after the artworks had returned from an exhibition in the German city of Dusseldorf.
Natalia Uvarova, spokeswoman for the Russian Culture Agency, said the exhibition would not open in the U.K. as scheduled, and the paintings would most likely be brought back to Russia.
"The exhibition cannot go ahead in London during those dates, so the works will not go to Britain and are more likely to return to Russia," recent reports quoted Uvarova as saying.
The agency's head Mikhail Shvydkoi said earlier Russia would send the paintings to the U.K. as soon as the British government provided documents guaranteeing that the artworks cannot be seized in the country by any court order.
"The decision does not challenge an agreement intensifying cultural cooperation between Russia and Britain, but is dictated exclusively by the need to observe Russian law," Shvydkoi was quoted as saying.
The U.K. Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport said it "has done everything possible to facilitate the exhibition going ahead, including full assurances that the works would be protected from seizure."
Some say the dispute could be linked to political problems between Russia and Britain over the Alexander Litvinenko murder, which sparked a diplomatic row in the summer, as well as a dispute over the recent forced closure of two British Council offices in Russia.
The exhibition involves Russia's four largest museums - the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow, and the Hermitage and the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. The paintings on display include works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso, Kandinsky, Malevich, Petrov-Vodkin and other world-famous artists. Matisse's Dance commissioned by Sergei Shchukin in 1909 was expected to be the star of the show.
The British embassy to Moscow said in a statement on Thursday that the U.K. government would introduce as soon as possible a law prohibiting the seizure of works of art. Parliament is expected to adopt the law as soon as it resumes work after New Year. Britain said it hoped the exhibition would then be able to be opened as scheduled.
Exhibition ads have been posted around London, and over 4,000 tickets have already been sold.
Officials from the Russian museums involved in the exhibition have supported the country's culture agency, recalling the 2005 incident with the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and the Swiss company, Noga. The company attempted to seize Russian property on exhibition in Switzerland in lieu of debt repayment.
Zinaida Bonami, deputy director for exhibitions at the Pushkin museum, said: "Sending the exhibition to London could have undesirable consequences."
Back in October, British media reported that a number of paintings could fail to return to Russia over claims from their pre-Revolution owners, as well as due to debts to British companies.
