With every blockbuster, the Guggenheim prompts suspicion: 'How did it get the loot, and to what end?' The current mega-show, Russia! Nine Hundred Years of Masterworks and Master Collections, on until 11 January, is drawn mostly from the Tretyakov Gallery and the Hermitage, and it doesn't seem too paranoid to wonder about the geopolitics in play. 'Realised under the patronage of Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation', the catalogue says, Russia! is 'the most comprehensive survey since the end of the Cold War'.[*] This reads like code for an attempt to rebrand the country for a post-Communist era under the aegis of the present autocrat.

LRB 3 November 2005 | PDF Download