Two weeks to save Russian art exhibit in London: Russian agency

MOSCOW - Britain may have only two weeks to save a major Russian art exhbition in London from being cancelled, a representative of Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery said Sunday, Interfax news agency reported.

If a legal row over the "From Russia" exhibit is not solved by early next month, then the planned January 26 exhibition date at the Royal Academy of Arts will be impossible to meet, said Tretyakov's deputy director Marina Elzesser.

The 120 paintings by French and Russian painters, including Matisse's famous "The Dance," are currently on show in Dusseldorf, Germany, "until January 6, possibly a little longer," Elzesser said.

From there the exhibition was meant to travel to London. But if a law protecting the paintings from legal claims while in Britain is not adopted in time, then they will have to come back to Russia, scuppering the London exhibition, Elzesser told Interfax.

"There is little time. I am afraid that if the exhibition returns to Russia, then it's unlikely everything will happen on schedule," Elzesser said.

"If the paintings are returned from Germany to Russia then holding the exhibition in London at the end of January, as planned, will be in doubt."