London's Tate Britain gallery agreed Wednesday to lend masterpieces from one of its most prized artists to Moscow's Pushkin Museum for Russia's first exhibit of William Turner's works in 33 years. ( dpa )
The show was made possible with Russian metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov's sponsorship despite diplomatic relations between the two capitals that have been on eggshells resulting in several cultural debacles.
A blockbuster exhibit from Russia scheduled at London's Royal Academy of Arts in December was only allowed to open after Britain enacted anti-seizure legislation to convince Moscow to lift its embargo.
Usmanov, ranked by Forbes as Russia's 19th richest man, is personally financing the high cost of travel and insurance for the exhibit. In September, he paid 36 million pounds (71.7 million dollars) at Southeby's for the entire private Russian art collection of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
Turner's works have not been seen in Moscow since 1975.
The Pushkin Museum, visited by about 1 million people per year, has a large collection of European Impressionist paintings but very few works by British artists.
After its troubled start, the exhibit at London's Royal Gallery featured 120 paintings rarely seen outside Russia, mostly lent from the Pushkin's halls, including works by Van Gogh, Matisse, Cezanne and Kandinsky and Chagall.
Analysts suspected at the time that the exhibit which appeared in Germany had been victim to a flare up in tensions over Moscow's closure of the offices of the British Council, an organization that promotes British art abroad.
Anglo-Russian relations have been strained since the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London which culminated in the tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats in May.
The Tuner exhibit set for November will feature 112 works permanently on display at the Tate Britain, including a self portrait (1798), The Battle of Trafalgar (1824) and Venice, San Georgio Sunrise (1819).