MOSCOW (AFP) — Britain scrambled Thursday to ward off Moscow's cancellation of a London exhibition of French and Russian masterpieces, as a widening diplomatic row between the two countries spilled into the art world.
Britain's department of culture said measures protecting loaned artworks from legal claims -- as Russia demands -- would be rushed into law in time for the exhibition, due to open January 26 at the Royal Academy of Arts.
"Because this is such an important exhibition we are prepared to go the extra mile," Culture Minister James Purnell told BBC radio.
Earlier, the head of Russia's Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, Mikhail Shvydkoi, said Britain had failed to persuade Moscow it was safe to loan the 120 works by French and Russian painters, including Matisse's "The Dance", for the long-awaited exhibition.
Moscow fears legal challenges in Britain by descendants of tsarist-era Russians whose families are reported to have owned some of the art works until they were confiscated in the Bolshevik Revolution.
A letter was sent to the British government declaring it was "impossible to accept as sufficient the guarantees of the exhibition's (legal) immunity and the return" of the artworks to Russia.
Shvydkoi said Russia would send the exhibition only if the British government guaranteed that courts would have no power to seize the exhibits while on British territory.
It was not immediately clear whether the new law -- which was originally scheduled to be enacted in February -- will satisfy the Russians.
The row is the latest shot in a diplomatic war that escalated after the murder last year of a fugitive Kremlin critic given asylum in Britain.
A failed attempt by Britain to extradite the chief suspect, ex-KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi, prompted tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats this July.
Then last week Russia announced it was closing down regional offices of the British Council. Moscow accused the cultural organisation of having failed to register properly, a charge British Prime Minister Gordon Brown angrily denied.
Russian officials insist the row over the art exhibit is purely a legal matter and not political.
However, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week the British Council dispute -- which is also outwardly a technical matter -- was an act of "retaliation" for the Litvinenko affair.
James Nixey, a Russia expert at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs, said President Vladimir Putin was provoking fights to demonstrate his country's newfound toughness.
"They are after recognition and respect. They are after power projection. To be a big player that plays with the big boys: that's ultimately it. It's little steps that build up as part of a master plan," he said.
Nixey predicted "there'll be a couple more bumps on the road" between London and Moscow as Russia gears up for the transfer of power from Putin in a March 2 election, where his handpicked successor Dmitry Medvedev is expected to win.
"Russia's not going to go quiet," Nixey said. "I can't see any particularly bright spots, but we're watching very intently to see how the new man goes."
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
