In the first weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, European leaders believed that their strategy of financial retaliation against Moscow would immediately bring the country to its knees. Russia\u2019s banking system would collapse, taking with it the economy of the world\u2019s largest country. For want of a better word, the European Union has considerably widened the sanctions, which now also affect the energy sector and private individuals. While this policy has not yet had all the desired effects in the political and economic spheres, it has in the fields of culture and art, making cooperation with Russia impossible.<\/p>\n
In the early days of the war, Sergei Fofanov, curator at the Tretyakov Gallery, was optimistic. He told Le Monde <\/em>(February 25, 2022): \u201cCulture remains the first and last basis for discussion\u201d, recalling that in 1956, at the height of the Cold War, a Picasso exhibition had been held in Moscow. The facts proved him wrong.<\/p>\n In Paris, the \u201cPicasso and Russia\u201d exhibition scheduled to open in September 2023 at the Mus\u00e9e du Luxembourg was quickly replaced by an exhibition on \u201cGertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso\u201d. The Philharmonie de Paris has modified the programming for its 2022-2023 season, which initially included Russian guests such as conductor Valery Gergiev, pianist Denis Matsuev and the Bolshoi Orchestra. In Amsterdam, the Hermitage Museum has changed its name to the H\u2019ART museum. This independent branch of St. Petersburg\u2019s Hermitage Museum, housed in the Amstelhof, a 17the century building, opened in 2009 and presented two exhibitions a year based on the Russian institution\u2019s collections. By changing its name, the H\u2019ART museum has also ended more than twenty years of collaboration with one of the world\u2019s most prestigious museums.<\/p>\n Faberge eggs, Impressionist paintings from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Hermitage Museum and other masterpieces were actively presented at exhibitions in London and Paris. Now it is impossible. European museums and collectors withdrew their exhibits from Russian exhibitions, both those already in operation and those planned. These are just a few examples out of many.<\/p>\n In an editorial in the Journal des Arts <\/em>(March 2022, no. 584), Jean-Christophe Castelain, melancholically reflecting on the powerlessness of art in the face of war, rightly wrote: \u201cCulture must be content with the aftermath. (\u2026) The aftermath means not creating antagonism with Russian civil society by cutting off ties with it. All over Russia there are signs of disassociation among artists, intellectuals, scientists and cultural figures who reject this war\u201d.<\/p>\n