MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. The exhibition of the collection of Russian art patrons Mikhail and Ivan Morozov held at the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris demonstrated that a critical attitude towards Russian culture is temporary, Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova said on Monday.
"We really saw how the Russian art, Russian heritage of Russian art patrons [in Paris] are respected by those who could reject it so quickly to truckle to modern times. Therefore, we understand how temporary and fleeting this is: both such sharp statements and such attitudes," she said at an official opening ceremony of the Morozov collection exhibit at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.
The official again thanked those who participated in returning the collection in Russia. She noted that everything happened on schedule - on June 26, an exhibit opened at the State Hermitage while another one will open at the Pushkin State Museum in Moscow on June 28.
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. News about the return of the collection to Russia came on May 5.
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.