Itar-Tass: Russia, US may spoil relations over Schneersohn library case
05.03.2011, 22.48
By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila Alexandrova
The dispute between the U.S. Chassidic Jews and the Russian authorities over the collection of Jewish holy books, which the rabbis had been collecting in the Smolensk Region for several centuries, hampers a smooth development of cultural relations between the countries and tends to spoil Russian-U.S. relations.
The Paul Poiret - the King of Fashion exhibition scheduled at the Moscow Kremlin State Museums in September 2011 may be cancelled over the U.S. court verdict on the so-called Schneerson library, Director of the Moscow Kremlin State Museums Yelena Gagarina told reporters on Thursday.
The Costume Institute of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is to bring the foresaid exhibition to Moscow. Without these museum exponents the exhibition dedicated to the legendary fashion designer at the beginning of the twentieth century is just senseless.
Meanwhile, the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and the State Hermitage Museum refused to bring Paul Haugen's masterpieces for an exhibition in Washington, because the exhibits may be arrested over the Schneersohn library case.
The Chassidic Jews are seeking for the collection of Jewish holy books to be brought back to them. The dynasty of the Schneersohn rabbis, who lived in the Russian Empire, had been collecting these Jewish holy books for several centuries. The collection is made of 12,000 Jewish holy books and 50,000 manuscripts, which a Chassidic rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (Joseph Isaac) Schneersohn initially owned. He lived in the village of Lubavitch (the Russian Smolensk Region in the present times) in the eighteenth century. The Chassidic Jews consider Schneersohn as a saint and have been seeking for his Jewish holy book collection to be passed to them for a long time.
The Bolsheviks nationalized some part of the Schneersohn library, which was finally brought to the Russian State Library. The sixth rabbi Joseph Schneersohn from the Schneersohn rabbi dynasty has taken away another part of the book collection from the Soviet Union in the thirties of the previous century. About 25,000 pages of the Jewish holy manuscripts fell in the hands of the Nazis and then the Red Army and were finally passed in the Russian State Military Archives.
The Chassidic Jews have been seeking for the library to be passed to them from the eighties of the previous century. Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, who is the son-in-law and inheritor of Joseph Schneersohn, who died in 1950, asked the former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev for this step. Gorbachev was said not to oppose it strongly. The Schneersohn library case was dragged out until the Soviet Union collapse over bureaucratic procrastinating. In 1992 Schneersohn asked the sovereign Russian authorities to pass the Jewish holy collection of his father-in-law to him. The first Russian president Boris Yeltsin did not object to it either.
However, the Vechernya Moskva notes that the Chassidic Jews spoiled all the business themselves, as they have taken several attempts to break into the Lenin State Library (the Russian State Library in the present times) and to seize the manuscripts by force. Meanwhile, they were beating up strongly the librarians and even policemen. The Schneersohn library was not passed to the Chassidic Jews over this and several other scandals.
After these events the Chassidic Jews decided to file a lawsuit in the U.S. court. In 2010 the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled to recognize the U.S.-based Chassidic Lubavitch organization Agudas Chassidei Chabad as the owner of the Schneersohn dynastical archives that make part of the Jewish holy book collection.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the U.S. court verdict illegal. "The US-based Chabad organization has never possessed the Schneersohn library. The library never left Russia and was nationalized, because the Schneerson rabbi dynasty did not have any more legitimate inheritors. These Jewish holy books cannot be "returned" to the United States in any case," the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
Meanwhile, the Chabad movement stated that it intends to seek for the U.S. court ruling to be enforced by all the ways up to the demands for the arrest of the Russian state property temporarily brought to the U.S.
The Russian museums finally ceased to stage their exhibitions to the U.S. The exhibition called Haugen as the creator of the myth, which had a brilliant success at the London Tate Modern Art Gallery, moved to the National Gallery of Art in Washington without the masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. Another highly publicized exhibition dedicated to a Venetian painter Canalleto and his rivals was curtailed too.
The Russian authorities also have some concerns that an exhibition of the unique icon collection from the Andrei Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Art may be arrested in the U.S.
The Paul Poiret - the King of Fashion exhibition just makes part of an intensive cooperation program with U.S. museums.
For instance, an outstanding exhibition, which will be staged on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Russian State Museum of Fine Arts in 2012, can hardly be imagined without any exhibits from the U.S. Alongside, the years of 2011 and 2012 are declared as the years of Russian-U.S. cultural cooperation. Their official agenda may also be upset over the current tensions in Russian-U.S. cultural cooperation.
"The U.S. court ruling was not in our favour all Russian intellectual property without diplomatic immunity may be arrested in the U.S. Any our exhibition may be arrested under the U.S. court verdict. We are cooperating with U.S. diplomats and probably any decisions may be taken to give the full guarantees of our intellectual property immunity in the U.S.," Russian Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev said live on the Echo of Moscow radio station on January 19, 2011.
"Unless we lack the guarantees that our valuables are brought back to our country and are not arrested we will not put them on display in the U.S.," the NEWSru.com website quoted Russian Deputy Culture Minister Andrei Busygin as saying.
Meanwhile, Russia and the United States are forming a joint expert group to settle the problem of staging Russian exhibitions in the U.S.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=16016924
By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila Alexandrova
The dispute between the U.S. Chassidic Jews and the Russian authorities over the collection of Jewish holy books, which the rabbis had been collecting in the Smolensk Region for several centuries, hampers a smooth development of cultural relations between the countries and tends to spoil Russian-U.S. relations.
The Paul Poiret - the King of Fashion exhibition scheduled at the Moscow Kremlin State Museums in September 2011 may be cancelled over the U.S. court verdict on the so-called Schneerson library, Director of the Moscow Kremlin State Museums Yelena Gagarina told reporters on Thursday.
The Costume Institute of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is to bring the foresaid exhibition to Moscow. Without these museum exponents the exhibition dedicated to the legendary fashion designer at the beginning of the twentieth century is just senseless.
Meanwhile, the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and the State Hermitage Museum refused to bring Paul Haugen's masterpieces for an exhibition in Washington, because the exhibits may be arrested over the Schneersohn library case.
The Chassidic Jews are seeking for the collection of Jewish holy books to be brought back to them. The dynasty of the Schneersohn rabbis, who lived in the Russian Empire, had been collecting these Jewish holy books for several centuries. The collection is made of 12,000 Jewish holy books and 50,000 manuscripts, which a Chassidic rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (Joseph Isaac) Schneersohn initially owned. He lived in the village of Lubavitch (the Russian Smolensk Region in the present times) in the eighteenth century. The Chassidic Jews consider Schneersohn as a saint and have been seeking for his Jewish holy book collection to be passed to them for a long time.
The Bolsheviks nationalized some part of the Schneersohn library, which was finally brought to the Russian State Library. The sixth rabbi Joseph Schneersohn from the Schneersohn rabbi dynasty has taken away another part of the book collection from the Soviet Union in the thirties of the previous century. About 25,000 pages of the Jewish holy manuscripts fell in the hands of the Nazis and then the Red Army and were finally passed in the Russian State Military Archives.
The Chassidic Jews have been seeking for the library to be passed to them from the eighties of the previous century. Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, who is the son-in-law and inheritor of Joseph Schneersohn, who died in 1950, asked the former Soviet Union president Mikhail Gorbachev for this step. Gorbachev was said not to oppose it strongly. The Schneersohn library case was dragged out until the Soviet Union collapse over bureaucratic procrastinating. In 1992 Schneersohn asked the sovereign Russian authorities to pass the Jewish holy collection of his father-in-law to him. The first Russian president Boris Yeltsin did not object to it either.
However, the Vechernya Moskva notes that the Chassidic Jews spoiled all the business themselves, as they have taken several attempts to break into the Lenin State Library (the Russian State Library in the present times) and to seize the manuscripts by force. Meanwhile, they were beating up strongly the librarians and even policemen. The Schneersohn library was not passed to the Chassidic Jews over this and several other scandals.
After these events the Chassidic Jews decided to file a lawsuit in the U.S. court. In 2010 the U.S. District Court in Washington ruled to recognize the U.S.-based Chassidic Lubavitch organization Agudas Chassidei Chabad as the owner of the Schneersohn dynastical archives that make part of the Jewish holy book collection.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the U.S. court verdict illegal. "The US-based Chabad organization has never possessed the Schneersohn library. The library never left Russia and was nationalized, because the Schneerson rabbi dynasty did not have any more legitimate inheritors. These Jewish holy books cannot be "returned" to the United States in any case," the information and press department of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
Meanwhile, the Chabad movement stated that it intends to seek for the U.S. court ruling to be enforced by all the ways up to the demands for the arrest of the Russian state property temporarily brought to the U.S.
The Russian museums finally ceased to stage their exhibitions to the U.S. The exhibition called Haugen as the creator of the myth, which had a brilliant success at the London Tate Modern Art Gallery, moved to the National Gallery of Art in Washington without the masterpieces from the State Hermitage Museum and the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. Another highly publicized exhibition dedicated to a Venetian painter Canalleto and his rivals was curtailed too.
The Russian authorities also have some concerns that an exhibition of the unique icon collection from the Andrei Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Art may be arrested in the U.S.
The Paul Poiret - the King of Fashion exhibition just makes part of an intensive cooperation program with U.S. museums.
For instance, an outstanding exhibition, which will be staged on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the Russian State Museum of Fine Arts in 2012, can hardly be imagined without any exhibits from the U.S. Alongside, the years of 2011 and 2012 are declared as the years of Russian-U.S. cultural cooperation. Their official agenda may also be upset over the current tensions in Russian-U.S. cultural cooperation.
"The U.S. court ruling was not in our favour all Russian intellectual property without diplomatic immunity may be arrested in the U.S. Any our exhibition may be arrested under the U.S. court verdict. We are cooperating with U.S. diplomats and probably any decisions may be taken to give the full guarantees of our intellectual property immunity in the U.S.," Russian Culture Minister Alexander Avdeyev said live on the Echo of Moscow radio station on January 19, 2011.
"Unless we lack the guarantees that our valuables are brought back to our country and are not arrested we will not put them on display in the U.S.," the NEWSru.com website quoted Russian Deputy Culture Minister Andrei Busygin as saying.
Meanwhile, Russia and the United States are forming a joint expert group to settle the problem of staging Russian exhibitions in the U.S.
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=16016924