“The director of Russia’s Pushkin museum said yesterday she would not lend any pictures to Britain for a forthcoming Royal Academy exhibition unless she received ‘absolute guarantees’ that they would not be the subject of legal action in the UK… Much of the show, including Matisse’s stunning Dance (II), comprises paintings once owned by Sergei Shchukin, one of tsarist Russia’s most prominent collectors. His grandson, Andre-Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, has in the past lodged unsuccessful legal claims to the works.”