This week experts in Russian Modernism published an open letter in The Art Newspaper voicing concerns over the legitimacy of a collection of works by Russian avant-garde artists that is currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent (MSK – Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent). The collection, which includes works attributed to Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Lazar el Lissitzky, Alexei Jawlensky, Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov among others, and which is on loan from the Dieleghem Foundation in Belgium, drew attention from experts in the field who were unable to find details on the works’ provenance or exhibition history. The foundation has said the works were acquired by owner and Russian businessman Igor Toporkovski’s extended family after the Stalin era. Art historians, curators and art dealers including Dr. Alexandra Shatskikh (author of several books on Malevich), Dr Konstantin Akinsha (curator at the Neue Galerie in New York) and Julian Barran (formerly a director of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art department in London and head of Sotheby’s France) are questioning the lack of information, from wall labels to catalogues surrounding the collection.
The open letter and full list of signatories can be read here.
17 January 2018
