Museums of Russia: State Tretyakov Gallery launched the project "Denied Masterpieces. Pavel Tretyakov's Challenge"

The State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow) launched the project "Denied Masterpieces. Pavel Tretyakov's Challenge".

It features twenty of the most outstanding works in the history of Russian art. The project aims to show how these paintings were greeted by contemporaries, and how aesthetic ideas and preferences changed over the years. After their public release, these works occurred in the orbit of discussions of the professional community. They caused not only discussions and disputes, but also rejection, denial, even harassment, up to censorship bans of display, removal from exhibitions, and withdrawal from catalogues. Today they comprise the permanent exposition of one of the main museums in the country.

Tretyakov's collection assembled controversial things, shocking the audience, causing discussions in the art world. Nevertheless, Pavel Tretyakov firmly bought works not unpleasant for the professional art community.

Contemporaries criticized Tretyakov for the lack of "the right choice" and did not support his acquisitions. The views and tactics of the collector were so far-sighted, that their attacks do not stand up to criticism by today's standards. Many times, Tretyakov wrote that only following generations could give a fair estimation of his collection because only time was a good judge.