MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. The first truck carrying masterpieces of art that were on display in Paris at an exhibition dedicated to the Morozov brothers’ collection, arrived in Russia, Putin’s Envoy for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi said on Monday.
"The artwork from Paris is currently being transported and the first logistics truck has arrived on Russian soil," Shvydkoi said during a broadcast by the Govorit Moskva radio station.
The envoy outlined that a particular wording of a legal document was worked out "to bring all masterpieces currently on display in Europe and beyond its boundaries, back to Russia, following the set dates of exhibitions, where they had been on display."
A spokesperson for the Paris-based Foundation Louis Vuitton told TASS on April 4 that the exhibition had ended on the night of April 3 and after that, the process of returning the paintings to the Russian museums and galleries that own them began.·
"The Morozov Collection: Icons of Modern Art" opened at the Louis Vuitton Foundation on September 21, 2021, with the participation of French President Emmanuel Macron. Initially, it was scheduled to run until February 22, 2022, but later a decision was made to extend it until April 3.
The Paris exhibition features paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Sezanne, Renoir, Manet, Matisse and other outstanding European painters. Along with them, works by some of Russia’s best-loved painters from the Morozov brothers’ collection were on display, including paintings by Konstantin Korovin, Valentin Serov, Kazimir Malevich, Natalia Goncharova and Pyotr Konchalovsky.