Russia

Moscow's GES-2 House of Culture: the rise and fall of Russian billionaire's huge new art hub

Russia’s foray into international culture stalls as art complex that opened last year sees artists exit and change of direction

Kyiv cultural sites reportedly damaged in Russian bombardment

Ukrainian culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says buildings have been damaged including the Khanenko Art Museum and the Kyiv Art Gallery

What do exiled Russian art world figures think of the war? We spoke to three in Tbilisi to find out

A museum director, theatre director and artist describe the lack of hope—and warn that cultural sanctions may cause the intelligentsia to unite against the west

State Hermitage Museum curator quits over Russia's war in Ukraine

Dimitri Ozerkov, the head of the contemporary art department, made the announcement on Instagram after months of silence

Immersive Anne Imhof exhibition—planned for Moscow and cancelled due to war in Ukraine—opens in Amsterdam

The celebrated German artist has created an installation at the Stedelijk Museum that marks a step away from the elaborate performance works for which she is best known

Russia to take over Ukrainian museum collections as formal annexation plans announced

Putin's decree to permanently occupy four regions of Ukraine means thousands of artefacts will become property of Russia

Poland demands Russia return seven paintings it claims were looted during Second World War

Putin’s international cultural envoy, Mikhail Shvydkoy, says Poland’s request has no legal grounds

First Cosmoscow fair since Russian invasion of Ukraine to open with no foreign galleries and internal complaints of censorship

“Understandably” no Ukrainian dealers applied to take part in the tenth anniversary edition of the Moscow fair

Russianews

William MacDougall, founder of UK's largest Russian-focused auction house, has died

Founded in 2004, MacDougall's was the first international auction house to have representatives in Moscow and Kyiv

Russian guard who doodled eyes on $1m painting sentenced as scrutiny of museum intensifies

Aleksandr Vasiliev had used a ballpoint pen to draw eyes on the stylised figures in a painting by avant-garde artist Anna Leporskaya

Icom condemns Russia's 'deliberate destruction' of Ukrainian heritage and plans stricter code of ethics

The International Council of Museums says revised protocol will allow it to more readily “address conflicts”—and could lead to the expulsion of Russia from the organisation

Russian museum founder and former mayor faces prison for criticising Ukraine invasion

Yevgeny Roizman, who established the Nevyansk Icon Museum in Yekaterinburg, was until yesterday the last prominent opposition politician in Russia to not have been arrested for speaking out against the war

London's Saatchi Gallery cancels Russian-organised show of Ukrainian art after social media backlash

"The Ukrainian Way" was scheduled for 3-11 September with an accompanying auction of physical works and NFTs

Fabergé egg allegedly found by US officials on $300m yacht seized from Russia oligarch

A photograph of the "egg" has yet to be released, leading to heightened speculation

Russianews

Russian artist Yulia Tsvetkova—who faced six years in prison on pornography charges for her drawings—is acquitted in court

But the artist's mother warns that worst is not over as prosecutors can still appeal for a resentencing

Cold War era returns as cultural ties are severed between Russia and US

Cultural understanding “cancelled” as Russia withdraws from 1998 memorandum and museums wind down “all direct communications and collaborative work”

Russiafeature

The romantic story behind a Russian photographer's version of Klimt's Kiss painting, restaged for Ukraine

Andrey Kezzyn recounts how hearing a tale of two lovers separated by the war spurred him to remake the famous art historical image

'Art will go back underground': artist Emilia Kabakov on the war in Ukraine and the fate of the Russian art world

Born in the Soviet Union, the artist reflects on how works by her and husband Ilya have taken on new meaning since the war

Russian justice ministry declares feminist artist Yulia Tsvetkova a 'foreign agent'

Tsvetkova, who is currently on trial on charges of disseminating pornography, is one of a growing cohort of dissidents to be labeled 'foreign agents'

Director of Moscow’s Second World War museum says he is ‘proud’ to be sanctioned over war in Ukraine

Aleksandr Shkolnik was added to list of sanctioned individuals by the UK and Australia, and is the first Russian museum director to be targeted

Masterpieces from Morozov collection return to Russia from France—but three works have been retained

Around 200 valuable works had to be sent in five convoys of six trucks across Europe as war in Ukraine hampers shipping

Art marketanalysis

Nefarious art world players: after Russian freeze out, will Saudi Arabia or China be next?

For decades Russian billionaires were feted for their free spending on the arts. Now, they are officially personae non gratae. But what of the other individuals and regimes with dubious reputations?

Pussy Riot's Masha Alekhina flees Russia disguised as a food courier (aided by Ragnar Kjartansson)

Alekhina has been arrested six times in the past year for protesting against Putin and the Kremlin

Alexey Beliayev-Guintovt—a Putin supporter who is one of Russia's best-known artists—discusses why he is happy his country's art market is in ruins

The artist, who has widely been accused of being a fascist, believes that Russia's invasion of Ukraine will free the country from "a Nazi dictatorship”

Russians are selling art to fund the war in Ukraine—and not all of it appears to be real

An allegedly fake Kandinsky and NFTs of Ukrainian cities' coats of arms are among the works being offered to support Putin's aggression

Russian artist's new exhibition decries war in Ukraine—and suggests Western art world enabled Putin

Maxim Kantor's "The Rape of Europe" show in Luxembourg explores how contemporary art "participated in the preparation of cannon fodder"

Reports say Putin is deliberately targeting Ukrainian heritage—but is that true?

Amid Russia’s savagery we must maintain a clear ethical stance when intervening to protect culture