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Trophy arts search and return unit established under Russian Exhibition Center

Acting Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky said on Saturday that Russia will not enter tanks on return of cultural objects

MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. A special structural unit dealing with the search and return of trophy arts was established early this year under the ROSIZO state museum and exhibition center, department head of the Russian Ministry of Culture Vladislav Kononov told TASS.

Acting Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky said on Saturday that Russia will not enter tanks on return of cultural objects. The Polish Foreign Ministry claimed rights to certain artworks in Russia in its tweet on Saturday.

"The Russian Ministry of Culture holds to an opinion that trophy arts are property of the Russian Federation. Furthermore, I can say that on the instruction of the acting culture minister of Russia we created a special structural unit in ROSIZO at the very start of the year of 75th anniversary of the Great Victory, which will deal on a systemic basis with the search for cultural objects lost during the Great Patriotic War," Kononov said.

"We will also continue dealing with the issue of systematizing and studying trophy arts in Russian museums, transferred as compensatory restitution. I will repeat the statement made earlier by Vladimir Medinsky in this case - neither the issue of their return nor even the possibility of talks on this matter and appearance of any conditions for such talks exist for us," the official added.

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