Switzerland returns art to Moscow
A Swiss government official says a collection of paintings from Moscow's Pushkin Fine Arts Museum can return to Russia.
The paintings, which had been sent to Switzerland for an exhibition, were seized briefly at the request of Noga, a Swiss company, which claims that Russia owes it millions of dollars in debts.
Oswald Sigg, a spokesman for Switzerland's governing Cabinet, said today that cantonal authorities have been requested to carry out the release immediately.
Swiss officials later released all but nine of the 54 paintings. The remaining works are in a locked customs vault that can only be opened tomorrow morning.
The collection includes works by Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse, and has a total insured value of more than $1 billion.
It is not the first time the Noga company has tried to seize Russian property abroad. The company says Russia owes it millions of dollars on contracts signed in the early 1990s and, a few years ago, representatives tried to detain a Russian ship docked at a French port and several SU-30 fighter planes taking part in an air show in Paris.