MOSCOW, May 5./TASS/. All exhibits from the collection of Russian art patrons Mikhail and Ivan Morozov are in satisfactory condition after their return to Russia from France, the head of the Pushkin Museum’s Department of 19th and 20th Century European and American Art, Alexandra Danilova, told journalists on Thursday.
"All works returning from Paris have arrived home. They have been unpacked from the boxes. The state of their preservation has not changed during the transportation. That is why we can state that this story (with the return of the paintings to Russia - TASS) has ended," she said.
News about the return of the collection to Russia came on May 5. Sixty-seven exhibits from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts have arrived. Most of them were unpacked upon the arrival. Three paintings were examined in the presence of journalists, including Girl on the Ball by Pablo Picasso. "The painting is in a stable condition now," the museum’s senior research associate Alexey Petukhov said. According to art conservator Nikolay Kolesnikov, this painting is transported very rarely since it is fragile. "The painting has several problems, they are constant. It happens that they get active in the process of transportation," the expert said, noting that the trip had not affected the condition of the artwork.
Henri Matisse’s Fruit and Bronze was also unpacked. "Everything is okay with the painting," Kolesnikov told the attending journalists. Yvette Gilbert Singing "Linter Longer, Loo" by Toulouse-Lautrec was the last to be unpacked and examined. Its condition "has not changed and remained the same as it was during the dispatch," Kolesnikov said.
According to Petukhov, Girl on the Ball along with other paintings of the Morozov collection from the Pushkin Museum will be part of the exhibition "Brother Ivan. Collection of Mikhail and Ivan Morozov" to be unveiled at the end of June. "It [the painting] will be the epilogue of the exhibition, since it was the last one that Ivan Morozov purchased. After the exhibition, it will return to the permanent exhibition, Petukhov summed up.
Exhibition in Paris
The exhibition "The Morozov Collection. Icons of Modern Art" opened at the Foundation Louis Vuitton on September 21, 2021, with the participation of French President Emmanuel Macron. It featured 67 works from the collections of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, 65 from the Hermitage, 33 from the Tretyakov Gallery and two from the Russian Museum. Initially it was supposed to end on February 22, 2022, but later it was extended until April.
The Paris exhibition featured 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.