Belgian Museum Removes Show of Disputed Russian Avant-Garde Works After Damning Expos

[icymist]

The suspect works come from Igor and Olga Toporovsky’s Dieleghem Foundation.

Sarah Cascone, January 30, 2018



Twenty-four Russian Modernist works at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent have been removed from view following the publication of an open letter signed by 10 leading experts in the field and a 3,000-word exposé in the Art Newspaper questioning their authenticity.

The works were on loan from the Dieleghem Foundation, a registered charity owned by Brussels-based Russian businessman and art collector Igor Toporovsky and his wife Olga. But they had no exhibition history or traceable sales records and had never before been reproduced in scholarly publications, according to the experts.

After the open letter was published on January 15, the museum announced plans to create a committee that would examine a handful of works in the display. But the majority were expected to remain on view until the committee’s findings were released next month.

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