Moscow
At the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow the long awaited exhibition "Morozov and Shchukin, Russian Collectors. From Monet to Picasso" has now opened (until 13 January). It is the first time the famous collections of two of Moscow's turn-of-the-century art patrons and businessmen, Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin, have been shown in their original form, with 120 masterpieces all together.
The project has attracted much attention as a result of the failed attempt earlier this year by Irina Shchukina to claim back her father's collection. In 1918 the Soviet government nationalised both collections, and they then became part of the collection of the Museum of New Western Art. On its closure they were shared out between the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
The exhibition was first seen in Essen at the Folkwang Museum, following the wishes of the sponsors, the German firm Ruhrgas, which is a major importer of Russian natural gas into Western Europe. The Russian version of the exhibition is not significantly different from that which enjoyed such success in Essen (it attracted 600,000 visitors), but it does include a reconstruction of the Music Room in Ivan Morozov's Moscow house, with its thirteen paintings of "The Story of Psyche" by Maurice Denis. These pictures have not been out of store at the Hermitage since the 1930s. On 17 February (until 17 April) the exhibition moves to the Hermitage in St Petersburg.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Morozov's music room reconstructed'