Affected by the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, 10 European art institutions decided to withdraw their loaned works from an exhibition planned by the Kremlin Museum. The exhibition "The Duel: From Trial by Combat to Noble Crime" was therefore indefinitely postponed. In addition, the National Gallery in London announced the cancellation of a loan request for the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, where the work "The Holy Family" was supposed to appear at its Raphael exhibition in April. In Milan, the exhibition "Grand Tour: Dream of Italy from Venice to Pompeii" is on display, and four Russian museums have asked for the recall of 23 of them.
According to the introduction, the exhibition "Duel: From Contest Trial to Noble Crime" explores duel culture and will feature exhibits from 10 European museums (including institutions in Paris, Madrid, Leeds and Vienna) as well as from the private collection of Queen Elizabeth II, but due to the Russo-Ukrainian War, all lenders have withdrawn their exhibits. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the Palace of Versailles originally lent 3 oil paintings, the French National Library loaned 7 works on paper, and the Louvre lent 6 works of art and two pistol collections related to the exhibition. The exhibition was originally scheduled to open on March 4, but has been postponed indefinitely.
The Kremlin Museum, where the exhibition "Duel" was supposed to take place
"Duels" are a common subject in Russian literature. Duels were originally a type of "divine judge". Later, duels provoked to preserve the honor and dignity of oneself or one's relatives and friends rose to dominance, that is, honorary duels. For the nobility, honor was above all else, and one of the ways to defend honor was through duels, and the famous poet Pushkin died in duels. According to the kremlin museum's official website, the core content of the exhibition "duel" should have consisted of exhibits from European museums, which "had to withdraw exhibits due to geopolitical conditions", while the Kremlin was "trying to make the exhibition take place without European participation". A number of local Russian institutions, including the St. Petersburg State Library, the Pushkin State Museum and the Moscow State History Museum, were also among the exhibitors.
"Our participation in the exhibition may be seen as a sign of differences between European countries, which will undoubtedly separate us from other European borrowing countries," a spokesman for the French Ministry of Culture told Le Monde, adding that negotiations with the Kremlin took place "without any signs of hostility."
The French-lent exhibits have arrived in Russia, and according to the regulations, the exhibits will now be transferred to the French consulate in Moscow for safekeeping. Due to current international shipping restrictions to Russia, it is unclear when the French will be able to arrive in Moscow to retrieve the work.
In response to the recall of exhibits in many European countries, journalist Yelena Karajeva wrote on the website of the Russian News Agency asking when France will be able to return Morozov's collection. Not long ago, the Morozov Collection, exhibited at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France, brings together the collections of the brothers Mikhail Morozov and Ivan Morozov of Moscow at the end of the 19th century, with 200 exhibits consisting mainly of paintings by modern French and Russian artists. The Louis Vuitton Foundation, together with the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the Tretyakov State Museum, held the exhibition, and the Russian side lent out a number of paintings, including Renoir's Portrait of Jeanne Samarie, Van Gogh's Fishing Boat on the Seashore and Gauguin's The Woman Holding the Fruit, which was also exhibited for the first time in a country outside Russia.
Portrait of Jeanne Samarie by Renoir
Since the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the works recalled in the exhibition "Duel" are not "individual cases". The late French artist Poltansky's first solo exhibition in Russia was postponed indefinitely due to the war, and the exhibition was scheduled to open on March 14, while Poltánsky's descendants have decided to withdraw the exhibits and ship the works back to France.
The State Hermitage Museum (also known as the Hermitage Museum) in St. Petersburg had planned to lend The Holy Family (circa 1506-1507) to Raphael at the National Gallery in London, but the loan plan has been cancelled.
The Renaissance master Raphael's grand exhibition, which will take place at the National Gallery in London from 9 April, will look back at Raphael's short but rich career, and "The Holy Family" is one of the most important international loan works in the exhibition. A spokesman for The National Gallery in London claimed that the cancellation of the loan request was a decision made by the museum last week and "had nothing to do with the Hermitage Museum's request for the return of the exhibits." The Art Newspaper writes that the Russian and British governments seem to have agreed on an issue in the current situation: as long as the war in Ukraine continues, there should be no international art lending between Russia and the West.
The Holy Family, Raphael
The Holy Family depicts St. Joseph and the Virgin in her arms, the Virgin in her arms, indoors, with a view from farther behind. This chiaroscuro shows leonardo da Vinci's influence on the young Raphael. The Raphael Exhibition at the National Gallery in London was originally scheduled for October 2020, but was postponed to April this year due to the pandemic. After the cancellation of the exhibition of "The Holy Family", in addition to the British domestic collection, the exhibition still plans to exhibit 17 Raphael works from international lenders, of which 8 are from Italy, 4 from France, 3 from the United States and 2 from Germany.
The Hermitage Museum is one of the largest art institutions in Russia, and due to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, the museum's international branches in Amsterdam and London have cut off contact with the St. Petersburg headquarters.
Meanwhile, the Hermitage Museum announced a recall of several works on display in two museums in Milan: The Palazzo Reale, two works, titian's Young Woman in a Feathered Hat, were asked to return, which appeared in the exhibition "Titian and the Female Figure of 16th-Century Venice," which is scheduled to run until June 5.
The Young Woman in the Feathered Hat, Titian
At the Gallerie d'Italia in Milan, the exhibition "Grand Tour: Dream of Italy from Venice to Pompeii" is on display, and four Russian museums have asked for the recall of 23 of them. The gallery said the works would be shipped back to Russia on March 27, after the end of the exhibition period.
(This article is compiled from the "The Art Newspaper", "ArtNews" and related reports of the Russian news agency)