Russia Takes On Louvre, Guggenheim as Putin Fights Pariah Status

Since it opened in March, the Russian Museum in Malaga, the southern Spanish coastal resort, has been thronged by visitors who line up to see centuries-old icons and works by 20th century avant-garde artists Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Marc Chagall.

The St. Petersburg landmark’s only foreign branch is part of an effort along with the former imperial capital’s State Hermitage Museum to stake their places on the map alongside international peers like the Guggenheim and Louvre. The drive, which has endured even amid the worst tensions between Moscow and Europe since the Cold War, was initially out of step with the Kremlin’s isolationist course. Now it could help President Vladimir Putin as he cautiously seeks to rebuild ties.