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Museum exhibits seized by Finnish customs arrive in Hermitage

"Our consolidated efforts have proven one thing: cultural exchanges enjoy a special status under current international laws and do not fall, at least today, under sanctions," Hermitage Director General Mikhail Piotrovsky noted

© Alexander Demianchuk/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, April 11. /TASS/. Works of art from Russia’s State Hermitage Museum, which were detained on the Russian-Finnish border on their way back home from an exhibition in Italy, have arrived in the Hermitage for unpacking, a TASS correspondent reported on Monday.

According to the TASS correspondent, after unsealing the truck’s back in the presence of a Federal Customs Service officer, the museum’s specialists began to unload boxes with the art objects.

According to the Hermitage’s specialists, among the exhibits are works by Antonio Canova, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Elisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun, Giulio Carlini, and others.

"This is the third return of a Hermitage exhibition of late. I want first of all to cordially thank the staff of the Russian Embassy in Finland, our Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Culture, the Customs Service, the Finnish Foreign Ministry and our partners in Italy and France. Our consolidated efforts have proven one thing: cultural exchanges enjoy a special status under current international laws and do not fall, at least today, under sanctions. This is very important. <…> We have more exhibitions. So, we will refrain from commenting due to security considerations. Everything is going according to its own course and the exhibitions are gearing up for the return," Hermitage Director General Mikhail Piotrovsky said.

Exhibits from the State Hermitage and other museums in the Leningrad Region were seized at the Finnish border crossing of Vaalimaa on April 3, when they were on their way back to Russia after an exhibition in Milan, which closed on March 27, 2022.

The Finnish customs officials called on the European Commission for clarifications. Later, the European Commission said that the art objects that are on loan from Russian museums to institutions in European countries and are exempt from the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia. Additionally, exhibits from the State Tretyakov Gallery and the State Museum of Oriental Art returning from Udine were detained at the border.

Finnish customs officials requested clarifications from the European Commission, which later said that the art objects that are on loan from Russian museums to institutions in European countries are exempt from the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia.

On Saturday, the Russian museum artworks finally crossed the border into Russia.

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