Russian exhibit cultural coup for museum

Abstract

Costing more than $1 million dollars to mount, Gifts to the Tsars is the museum's grandest effort yet to gain national and international exposure, a bid for status as a venue for blockbuster shows. [...] it was Walton who raised the prospect of the museum doing a show of Russian gifts, based on conversations he'd had with curators from the Armory Museum.

From the late 15th century through the early 20th, the imperial rulers of Russia were known as czars. Their powers were absolute, and their coffers -- filled with royal gifts from throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East -- were among the richest in the world.

This fall, a touch of that splendor will dazzle visitors to the Indianapolis Museum of Art in what arguably could be the most important exhibition in the museum's history. Called Gifts to the Tsars, 1500-1700: Treasures from the Kremlin , the exhibit contains about 100 priceless objects chosen from the thousands of diplomatic gifts given to the tsars during their 500-year reign.

The show, developed by the IMA in collaboration with the Kremlin's Armory Museum, has never been done before, and Indianapolis is its only U.S. stop.

"Our timing was great," said Barry Shifman, the IMA's curator of decorative arts, "because the Kremlin curators want to do important shows. But to do that, they knew they had to release some of their most precious objects."

Costing more than $1 million dollars to mount, Gifts to the Tsars is the museum's grandest effort yet to gain national and international exposure, a bid for status as a venue for blockbuster shows. IMA officials think they can entice more than 100,000 visitors to the museum during the exhibit's nearly four-month run.

That will benefit not only the IMA, but the city as well, said Edward Able, president of the American As sociation of Museums.

"Any time there has been a major exhibition like this in other cities, it has had a tremendous impact on those communities," Able said. "It's a way of rebranding a city, of modifying public perception of what it's like."

How did museum officials in Indianapolis persuade their Russian counterparts in Moscow to loan the show's priceless objects?

They asked.

That was the simple part. More complicated was navigating the social and cultural differences that divide the two nations as officials worked out the details, a process that took three years and involved multiple trips to Moscow and months of complex negotiations.

Hitting the jackpot

The Kremlin is a sprawling complex of buildings in the heart of Moscow. Its onion-shaped domes and towering spires are familiar to many Americans as a Cold War symbol of Soviet militarism. But long before that, the Kremlin was home to the czars (sometimes spelled tsars) -- and now it's home to their history.

Part of that history consists of the diplomatic gifts -- items given to the czars by other rulers hoping to influence Russian political, economic and religious decisions. They're displayed in the Armory Museum in the Kremlin complex.

It was on a visit to Moscow in 1998 that Shifman first dreamed of doing Gifts to the Tsars . Standing in the Armory Museum, surrounded by hundreds of massive display cases filled with gleaming silver platters and goblets, jewel-bedecked swords and saddles, sumptuous ceremonial robes and vestments, Shifman knew he'd hit the jackpot.

"I'd never seen such gorgeous stuff in America," he said.

Guy Walton, a professor at New York University and an expert on diplomatic gifts, was with Shifman on that trip. In fact, it was Walton who raised the prospect of the museum doing a show of Russian gifts, based on conversations he'd had with curators from the Armory Museum.

Educational endeavor

Russia has done a better job of preserving and documenting its gifts than any other country, said Walton. "As a result, the Kremlin has the world's largest collection. It's the most important place in the world for diplomatic treasures."

Shifman knew organizing an exhibition would be a challenge. He also knew armory curators wanted to do a show highlighting the variety and value of gifts given to the czars.

Armory Museum curator Elena A. Morshakova says the exhibition is a way to teach new audiences about Russia.

"When exhibits are sent to relatively remote countries such as the United States, where the history and culture of Russia are not widely known, it brings us a little bit closer together," Morshakova said via e-mail.

That's true, says David L. Ransel , director of Indiana University's Russian and East European Institute. "Americans don't have any idea how old Russian culture is," Ransel said. "While we think of Russia as a Western country, it emerged from the Mongol empire, which was Eastern."

It also will raise public awareness of the artistry of people from centuries past, he added. "I've been to the Kremlin and I've seen some of the types of objects that will be in the show. My jaw dropped."

In planning the exhibition in Indianapolis, Shifman and Walton (who agreed to serve as co-curator) created a wish list of items they wanted. The Kremlin countered with an amended list.

Gradually, it became obvious that the best way to organize the show was to limit its chronological scope. The Russian curators suggested the 1500-1700 time period, which covers roughly the time from Ivan the Terrible (1533-84) to Peter the Great (1682-1725).

"They really tried to provide us with the best pieces, " Shifman said.

Their offerings included pieces that highlighted both the variety of objects in the collection and the diversity of their origins. While many objects are from European sources, others come from Persia and the Ottoman Empire.

Shifman and Walton had to drop seven key objects -- including the crown of Peter the Great, circa 1682 -- because the Russian Ministry of Culture said the items couldn't leave the country.

"But what was surprising," Shifman said, "was that the curators at the armory came up with even better objects to replace the ones they wouldn't let us have."

Determining which objects to loan was the most complex part of the planning process, Morshakova said. "Our leading conservators had to determine the condition of each object and decide whether or not it was possible to transport it."

Even more frustrating than the slow-moving decision process was the red tape that entangled museum representatives.

"You can't just ask one person for permission to borrow something," Shifman said. "You have to follow these complicated protocols."

Added to the protocols were the legal ramifications of borrowing one-of-a-kind, priceless pieces of history. In other words, contracts. Based on Russian law. Negotiated with Russians. In Russian.

Enter local attorney Ed DeLaney , a partner at Barnes & Thornburg who speaks Russian fluently and is an expert in Russian contract law. He handled the contract negotiations for both the exhibition and its accompanying 500-page catalog.

DeLaney, who has been to Russia many times during the past decade to handle business deals for clients, served as a cultural liaison.

"Russians have a deeper bureaucratic tradition than Americans do," he said. "You have to show the appropriate level of respect to the right persons about the issues that concern them."

DeLaney determined which contractual issues required face-to-face meetings. "It was a matter of knowing what they thought was important and what we thought was important," he said.

That expertise was invaluable, said Bret Waller, museum director. "Ed was enormously helpful in working out the numerous complicated details associated with the contracts. He knew what to do to keep things moving forward."

So did Waller, Walton said. "Bret's persistence kept us going despite all the complications we encountered. Developing this show was a stretch for everybody, but Bret never stopped believing we could do it."

Even so, Shifman said, putting the show together was like climbing a steep hill. "There were times when I wasn't sure this exhibition was going to happen."

Once both sides agreed which items to include in the exhibit, the next step was getting them safely to Indianapolis.

Preserving and protecting the objects in the show account for much of its million-dollar budget. Special shipping crates being built by a firm in Finland will cradle the objects during their long journey here and back. For further protection, the museum's exhibitions department is custom-building display cases based on those in the Armory Museum.

Then there are the travel and lodging expenses for visiting Russian officials. Five Russian curators will accompany the items from Moscow to Indianapolis, and spend five weeks here overseeing the exhibition's installation. Add to those expenses the costs of insurance and special security measures.

To help the offset its costs, the art museum is relying on grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis and private donors to underwrite the exhibition. According to Waller, those sources have contributed about $250,000. The museum's goal is to double that amount by the exhibition's debut.

Gifts to the Tsars is an expensive show, Waller acknowledged, but worth the cost because its value extends beyond popular interest. "This exhibition will make a real contribution to the scholarship and understanding of the history of art and diplomatic relations in the 16th and 17th centuries," he predicted.

From Shifman's perspective, that's why he and everyone else involved in the show's development have persevered throughout its three-year development.

"This isn't just the borrowing of a bunch of objects. It's a chance to work with the world's history."

Contact S.L. Berry at [phone] or via e-mail at [email protected].