This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/feb/10/treasures-modern-art-seen-outside-russia-first-time-sergei-shchukin
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Treasures of modern art to be seen outside Russia for first time | Treasures of modern art to be seen outside Russia for first time |
| (7 months later) | |
| One of the world’s greatest private collections of modern art is to go on show for the first time outside Russia, museum curators have said. | One of the world’s greatest private collections of modern art is to go on show for the first time outside Russia, museum curators have said. |
| The collection of more than 250 paintings put together by Sergei Shchukin before the Russian revolution will be displayed in its entirety in October at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris – a major coup for the newly opened gallery. | The collection of more than 250 paintings put together by Sergei Shchukin before the Russian revolution will be displayed in its entirety in October at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris – a major coup for the newly opened gallery. |
| The super-rich collector filled his Moscow mansion with some of the finest French impressionist and post-impressionist art, making a kind of orthodox altar in one room with 16 of Gauguin’s Tahiti paintings. | The super-rich collector filled his Moscow mansion with some of the finest French impressionist and post-impressionist art, making a kind of orthodox altar in one room with 16 of Gauguin’s Tahiti paintings. |
| But his hoard of 50 top-notch Picassos, 38 works by Matisse, 13 Monets, eight Cézannes and four Van Goghs that the textile merchant picked up on business trips to Paris, was seized after Russia’s October revolution in 1917. | But his hoard of 50 top-notch Picassos, 38 works by Matisse, 13 Monets, eight Cézannes and four Van Goghs that the textile merchant picked up on business trips to Paris, was seized after Russia’s October revolution in 1917. |
| Lenin himself signed the decree to expropriate the works, before Stalin scattered the collection to museums in Moscow and St Petersburg, condemning some of the greatest masterpieces of 20th-century art as “bourgeois and cosmopolitan”. | Lenin himself signed the decree to expropriate the works, before Stalin scattered the collection to museums in Moscow and St Petersburg, condemning some of the greatest masterpieces of 20th-century art as “bourgeois and cosmopolitan”. |
| “This is a historic event which will have people coming from all over the world, something we are not likely to see again for a while,” Jean-Paul Claverie, an adviser to the luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, told Agence France-Presse. Arnault opened the private Fondation Louis Vuitton at the end of 2014. | “This is a historic event which will have people coming from all over the world, something we are not likely to see again for a while,” Jean-Paul Claverie, an adviser to the luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, told Agence France-Presse. Arnault opened the private Fondation Louis Vuitton at the end of 2014. |
| The paintings will go on display in the spectacular building designed by the architect Frank Gehry on 20 October, with the Icons of Modern Art show running until 20 January. | The paintings will go on display in the spectacular building designed by the architect Frank Gehry on 20 October, with the Icons of Modern Art show running until 20 January. |
| The show will also include 30 major pieces from the Russian avant-garde suprematist and constructivist movements, loaned by the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. | The show will also include 30 major pieces from the Russian avant-garde suprematist and constructivist movements, loaned by the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow and the Russian Museum in St Petersburg. |
| Shchukin, who fled Russia for France after the revolution, had a particularly close relationship with Henri Matisse, who he brought to Moscow in 1911 to decorate his palatial home. | Shchukin, who fled Russia for France after the revolution, had a particularly close relationship with Henri Matisse, who he brought to Moscow in 1911 to decorate his palatial home. |
| He also commissioned two of the artist’s most important works, The Dance and Music, which are likely to be centrepieces of the Paris show, curated by the former head of the city’s Picasso Museum, Anne Baldassari. | He also commissioned two of the artist’s most important works, The Dance and Music, which are likely to be centrepieces of the Paris show, curated by the former head of the city’s Picasso Museum, Anne Baldassari. |
| The exhibition is the fruit of years of negotiations between LVMH boss Arnault and the Russian authorities, with a partnership agreement signed on Wednesday at the Russian foreign ministry between the foundation and the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and Moscow’s Pushkin Museum. | The exhibition is the fruit of years of negotiations between LVMH boss Arnault and the Russian authorities, with a partnership agreement signed on Wednesday at the Russian foreign ministry between the foundation and the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and Moscow’s Pushkin Museum. |
| LVMH had previously bankrolled the loan of two other versions of Matisse’s The Dance held by Paris’s Museum of Modern Art to the Pushkin in 2004. | LVMH had previously bankrolled the loan of two other versions of Matisse’s The Dance held by Paris’s Museum of Modern Art to the Pushkin in 2004. |
| Claverie confirmed that the costs involved in taking the Shchukin collection abroad were probably beyond the reach of many of the world’s top museums. | Claverie confirmed that the costs involved in taking the Shchukin collection abroad were probably beyond the reach of many of the world’s top museums. |
| “(The show) is a very strong signal. A great private benefactor, Bernard Arnault, wanted to pay homage to a great collector,” he said. “Big private collectors often play a key role in putting together the collections of great public institutions.” | “(The show) is a very strong signal. A great private benefactor, Bernard Arnault, wanted to pay homage to a great collector,” he said. “Big private collectors often play a key role in putting together the collections of great public institutions.” |