From Russia Update

Brenda Emmanus's pointless trip to St Petersburg for BBC London News (next post down) has been followed by some hard facts from BBC News about the Hermitage Museum's loan of paintings to the Royal Academy of Arts. The show, due to open on 26 January 2008, is called From Russia: French and Russian Master Paintings 1870-1925. (What Picasso's gormless Dryad has to do with this is anyone's guess.) The 120 exhibits will include at least one work by a great Russian master: Ilya Repin's Manifesto of 17 October 1905. It appears Russians are scared of losing their paintings since the impounding of 55 works in Switzerland. Not only has culture secretary James Purnell written to reassure them, but also a bill to outlaw the seizure of art belonging to other countries is being put through Parliament. So here's an exhibition that seems to have instigated a change in English law!
To view Repin's Barge Haulers on the Volga CLICK and his Portrait of a Boy CLICK.