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Russian Daily News Information Service Russia
pulled into $1 billion art dispute with Switzerland
Swiss police and customs seized a collection of 54 paintings from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The unique collection of paintings made by French artists evaluated at the total sum of one billion dollars was taken on behald of Noga, a company based in Switzerland. The art show entitled "French Paintings from the collection of the Pushkin Museum" was held in the art gallery of Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Switzerland from June 17 to November 13 of this year. The exhibition was closed on Wednesday morning, but the Swiss police stopped Russian trucks, containing the paintings, on their way to another country. The seizure of the art collection was approved by the legal authorities of Martigny in Switzerland, where the exibition was originally held. "The exibition was delivered to Switzerland under security guarantees provided by the authorities of Valais, where the art show was opened," a statement from the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs said. Specialists of the museum said that some paintings could be damaged as a result of the incident. "They can be damaged because of the changing temperatures in the trucks. The police withdrew keys from the truck drivers, which deprived them of a possibility to control the air conditioning system in the vehicles. The conditioning system was activated later, but several trucks stopped in Basel and Geneva were parked in a warm garage," an expert of the Moscow-based Pushkin Museum said. A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Bern, Igor Petrov, said that the decision regarding the arrest of the art collection was canceled yesterday owing to the efforts taken by the federal council of the Swiss government. However, Noga filed another lawsuit at the same time as the Russian trucks were transporting the paintings of French artists towards the borders of Switzerland. As a result, the paintings were halted repeatedly. "Noga has absolutely no chances to win the case vs. Russia," lawyer Igor Zenkin said in an interview with Pravda.Ru. Mr. Zenkin has defended Russia's interests before, when Noga was trying to obtain Russian airplanes, which had been brought to the air show in Le Bourget. "There are certain kinds of state property, which are not subject to legal claim. Paintings are included in this category of property," the legal expert said. "The firm has an act of execution, which implies that it can seize state property of Russia. However, the firm needs to realize that certain kinds of property can not be taken in this way. Apparently, they don't seem to have very good legal experts," Igor Zenkin concluded. The chairman of the Bureau of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, believes that Russian officials should not let Noga's director push them around. Russian politicians believe that the paintings, which represent the priceless heritage of world culture, cannot be involved in the unprincipled game of a bankrupt Swiss businessman. Russian Finance Minister, Aleksey Kudrin, is certain that the collection of paintings taken in Switzerland, in connection with the lawsuit filed by Noga, will be eventually returned to Russian undamaged. The history of the conflict between the Swiss company Noga and the Russian government started in the early 1990s. The Government of Russia concluded several contracts with Noga in 1991-1992 for the sum of around $1.4 billion. The company undertook to ship foodstuffs and fertilizers to Russia in return to oil deliveries. The execution of the contractual obligations laid the foundation of the ongoing dispute between the two sides. According to the contract, Russia guaranteed its execution with property. The Russian government terminated the contract in 1993, which made Noga sue the government and claim the compensation of about $680 million. In 1994 Noga filed a lawsuit at the Stockholm Arbitration Court. The court confirmed in February of 1997 that Russia's debt to the Swiss firm made up some 23 million. However, Noga was asking for the $1.5 billion compensation. Noga seized the French accounts of the Russian Central Bank and the Russian sailboat Sedov in July of 2000. However, a Russian court ordered to release the vessel and pay its owner, the Murmansk State Technical University, the compensation of 500,000 franks. Noga later attempted to seize Russian aircrafts Su-30MK and MiG-AT at the air show in Le Bourget in June of 2001. The claim on the property was found to be illegal, but Russia has not participated in the air show since the incident.
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