ABOVE: Detail from Gauguin’s Eiaha Ohipa (’Do Not Work’ Tahitians in a Room) (1896). It was one of 55 works from the Pushkin Museum briefly impounded in an unrelated trade dispute; Russia is furious.

Russia is only the latest in a long line of European nations slamming their art collections shut to foreign museums, The Art Newspaper revealed on Friday. Although their article focsuses on the impact the chill will have on England, it has ramifications throughout Europe. The Hermitage has apparently threatened to stop all its loans of artworks in Britain, including the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House, unless the UK provides explicit assurances that Russian-owned artworks on loan will not be seized in trade disputes.

Russia has reason to make such demands: On November 15, 55 works from the Pushkin Museum were impounded at the Swiss-German border after a Swiss firm persuaded customs agents to hold the shipment based on claims it is making against the Russian government for the UN oil-for-food programme. The 55 paintings, collectively worth an estimated $1 billion, were essentially held ransom at the behest of private interests in order to extort $100 million from the Russian government. Only a handful of European countries explicitly forbid such pawnsmanship (France and Germany included), so Russia’s decision to demand immunity from art seizures will affect dozens of countries and hundreds of institutions. It’s almost like a curtain—a curtain made of some strong, possibly metallic material, does this ring a bell?—has lowered across Europe.

LINK: The Art Newspaper > Russia threatens to end loans to UK