Uffizi gallery director condemns sanctions on Russian culture
Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence has said calls to demolish Russians sculptures or ban Russian exhibits as a reaction to the war in Ukraine are “absurd.”
The comment came after Florence mayor Dario Nardella revealed on Twitter on Wednesday that there had been calls to demolish a monument to Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky by Russian sculptor Aydyn Zeynalov, which had been installed in the city last year.
“We hope that the numerous calls for peace that are heard around the world will have an effect,” Schmidt said, according to the museum’s press service, which added that it was forced to comply with government rules halting contact with Russian institutions.
He also expressed total opposition to the war in Ukraine, saying the day the conflict broke out, the Uffizi Gallery posted the image of “Consequences of War” by Peter Paul Rubens on its social media.
An earlier decision of Milano-Bicocca University to cancel a course on Dostoevsky as a response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine was met with indignation by its author and lecturer, Paolo Nori. After the ensuing controversy the course was reinstalled and returned to the schedule.
In retaliation to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, the US, the European Union and others countries have imposed a number of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow, including barring several of the country’s banks from the global payment system SWIFT, and closing off their airspace to Russian aircraft.
Several international brands such as Apple, IKEA, H&M, Airbnb, and PayPal have this week suspended their operations in Russia over the Ukrainian conflict, while Russian organizations and individuals are being banned from international events and competitions worldwide.
