This is the first time that this vast collection, made up of Van Gogh, Cézanne, Matisse, as well as works by Russian painters such as Malevich and Repin, has come out of Russia to be exhibited abroad.

While the exhibition ended last Sunday and was being dismantled this week, the Ministry of Culture announced to AFP on Saturday that two paintings would remain "in France".

For the first, the measure will last as long as "its owner, a Russian oligarch, remains subject to an asset freezing measure," said the ministry, without giving the name of the owner.

According to a source familiar with the matter, it is Petr Aven, close to Vladimir Putin, who appears on the list of Russian personalities subject to Western sanctions.

The painting in question is a self-portrait by Piotr Konchalovski, dating from 1911.

The billionaire, who announced his withdrawal from the LetterOne investment fund in mid-March, is a major art collector who has loaned several of his works in the past, notably to MoMA in New York and the Royal Academy in London.

The second painting - a portrait of Margarita Morozova by the painter Serov - will remain in France "at the request of the Ukrainian authorities. It belongs to the Museum of Fine Arts in Dnipropetrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, and would risk being be damaged.

A third work "held by a private foundation, linked to another oligarch who has just been added to the list of personalities targeted by freezing measures, is the subject of an examination by the State services", added the ministry.

These are the private Magma foundation and the oligarch Vyacheslav Kantor, whose painting by the painter Serov representing a relative of the Morozov family is also part of the collection, we learned from a source close to the file.

Asked by AFP, the Louis Vuitton Foundation said it would "respect the government's decision".

Towards an attendance record

About 200 works by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Bonnard, Monet or Manet have been exhibited since September 22 at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, west of Paris, alongside Russian painters such as Golovine, Gontcharova, Korovin, Mashkov, Malevich, Melnikov, Repin, Serov...

These masterpieces were brought together by the two brothers Mikhail and Ivan Morozov, industrialists passionate about modern art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

A painting by French painter Pierre Bonnard during a press visit to the exhibition "The Morozov Collection - Icons of Modern Art" at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, September 15, 2021 GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT AFP / Archives

Most of the works must return to their original institutions, mainly the Pushkin Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, as well as the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.

Even within the framework of European sanctions, EU Member States can derogate from the ban on the transfer and export to Russia of works of art when these works have been loaned within the framework of a cooperation official cultural relationship with Russia, the ministry said.

Questioned several times by AFP, the Vuitton foundation did not wish to provide more details as to the mode of transport for security reasons in particular.

The exhibition, extended until April 3 when it was to end on February 22, brought together well over a million visitors and could exceed in terms of attendance that of another great Russian collector, Sergei Chtchoukine, which had attracted 1.29 million visitors in 2016-2017 to the private foundation.

A record for an art exhibition in France.

The final attendance figures for the Morozov exhibition will be known early next week.

© 2022 AFP