The art scholar Irina Antonowa is dead. The Russian state agency Tass reported on Tuesday. She died at the age of 98.
Antonova, born in Moscow on March 20, 1922, began her work in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow under Josef Stalin, was its director from 1963 to 2013, and then its president.
In Germany it is as “Guardian of the Art of Loot” known, which the Soviet soldiers brought to Moscow after the Second World War. The “booty” was seen as compensation for war losses. It was part of their legacy to write the “relocated cultural property” into law as reparation.
During the Soviet era, Antonova organized the first show with works by the surrealist Salvador Dalí. After the end of the Cold War, she opened the secret depots with looted art after Moscow had already returned large quantities to the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden during the GDR era. (tsp)
