Russian icons fly home from US

WASHINGTON, April 1 (Itar-Tass) -- Thirty-seven icons from Russia's
Andrei Rublev Museum which Russia feared may be seized in the United
States safely boarded an Aeroflot plane on Thursday that took off for
Moscow, the Russian embassy told Tass.
The Russian Culture Ministry ordered the icons displayed in the Museum
of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA, to be immediately returned home, being
afraid they might be seized in the United States following the row
triggered by the American Hasidic community over the Schneerson Collection
of sacred Jewish books and manuscripts kept in Russia.
The icons had to be displayed through July 25 however Museum owner
Gordon Lankton finally agreed to terminate the display. He told Tass he
will get no compensation, but will retain free access to Russia.
Although no U.S. attempts to bar the return of Russia icons have been
known, Russia's presidential envoy for international cultural cooperation
Mikhail Shvydkoy said pending the settlement of the Schneerson Collection
issue, no exhibitions of Russian cultural valuables were possible in the
United States.
Several Russian Museums including the Moscow-based Tretyakov Gallery
have refused to display their exhibits in the USA.
The U.S. Lubavitch Hasidic community claimed ownership over the
Schneerson Collection in a US court which ruled in August 2000 that Russia
should transfer the collection to the Brooklyn-based Judaic Chabad
Lubavitch movement.
The Schneerson collection of Jewish books and manuscripts sacred to
the Lubavitch Hasidic community has been kept at the Russian State Library
and the Russian State Military Archive. It is known to consist of two
parts: a library seized by the Soviet government after the 1917 revolution
in Russia, and an archive believed to have been captured by the Nazis when
they took Warsaw in 1939 and subsequently seized by the Soviet troops at
the end of World War II.
The Schneerson library, a collection of books on Judaism, had for
centuries been collected in the Smolensk province by the family of the
Schneerson rabbis, subjects of the Russian Empire.
Russia rejected the U.S. court ruling and the foreign ministry said
"the Schneerson library has never belonged to the Chabad. It never left
Russia, and was nationalized because there were no legal heirs in the
Schneerson family."
"It is obvious to any legal expert that this verdict is insignificant
from a legal point of view and represents an egregious breach of the
generally accepted rules and principles of international law," the
ministry said.