Russia Expects Helsinki To Decide Swiftly On Return Of Artworks - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2022) Russia expects from Helsinki an early decision on the return of detained Russian artworks in full, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"On April 2-3, Finnish customs authorities, citing a possible violation of the regime of the so-called sanctions against Russia on the Russian-Finnish border, detained three vehicles en route through the territory of Finland to Russia," she said.

"They carried out the transit transportation of cultural property belonging to the State Hermitage, the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, previously exhibited in Italy (Milan and Udina) and Japan (Chiba)," she recalled.

According to Zakharova, on April 5, in the presence of employees of the Russian Embassy in Finland, the cargo was temporarily placed in a specially equipped storage facility at the Ateneum Art Museum in Helsinki, pending the end of the proceedings.

"The Finnish authorities were informed of the requirement that sealed packages should not be opened," Zakharova said, adding that Helsinki is now waiting for clarification from the European Commission.

"In fact, this situation can be described in two words � legal lawlessness. We are talking about the detention, in violation of international law, of cultural property belonging to the Russian Federation and temporarily located abroad under state guarantees of countries in which exhibitions of these objects were organized on a non-commercial basis in cooperation with our museums," she said.

"We are waiting for the prompt decision of the Finnish authorities to ensure the return of our works of art to the Russian Federation in full," the spokeswoman concluded.