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U.K. law clears way for Russian exhibition

MOSCOW: A year of diplomatic punches between Moscow and London that began with a British demand for Russia to amend its Constitution ended with Britain bending to a Russian demand to change its legislation.

On the last day of 2007, the British government hastily enacted a law aimed at clearing the way for an exhibition of masterpieces from Russia in London. The law was rushed through after Russia had threatened to cancel plans to loan about 120 paintings by 20th-century French and Russian artists unless Britain passed “immunity from seizure” legislation.

The Russian exhibition, which includes works by Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh and Picasso, is one of the most keenly anticipated of the year in the U.K. The British Department for Culture, Media and Sport had sent a “letter of comfort” to Moscow, but Russian authorities said the letter would not guarantee the paintings against legal challenges by descendants of Russian owners of some of the art works who had lost them in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

In the face of the Russian threat to block the exhibition, Britain fast-tracked the new legislation bringing British laws in line with the rest of Europe. Moscow on Monday issued licences for the paintings to go to London.

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