LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is caught in the middle of a legal and diplomatic dispute that has prompted Russian authorities to ban art loans to U.S. museums because of an American court decision in favor of the Jewish religious group Chabad.
The Russian cultural ban already has aborted one U.S. museum exhibition, forced the indefinite postponement of another, and could prevent the museum from showing 38 artworks in a major exhibition on Islamic art set to open Sunday.
Russia's actions are the result of a ruling in a U.S. District Court last summer that Russia must restore a trove of religious books and manuscripts to Chabad, a branch of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic movement. Despite a U.S. law and diplomatic assurances to the contrary, Russian officials have said they fear art shipped to American museums could be seized as collateral.
LACMA spokeswoman Barbara Pflaumer said Tuesday that she could not comment on LACMA's efforts to assuage the Russians in hopes of securing the artworks; the situation "is incredibly fragile and we are doing our very best not to make waves," she said, adding that "Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts" will take place with or without the pieces from Russia.
The ban has affected other prestigious art institutions. Four paintings that the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York had expected for a recent Cezanne exhibition and a current one on 19th-century art were withheld by Russia, spokesman Harold Holzer said. The museum has warned Russian museums that it won't send costumes for a planned exhibition on French fashion designer Paul Poiret unless the ban is lifted.
In March, Russian authorities insisted that the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Mass., pack up its "Treasures From Moscow" show, which had been on display since October, and send the works home four months before the scheduled closing.
The Houston Museum of Natural Science had planned to open "Treasures From the Hermitage: Russia's Crown Jewels" last Friday; it has been postponed indefinitely.
Attempts last week to reach a Russian Embassy spokesman were unsuccessful.
