LONDON—Officials in Moscow canceled a major exhibition of Russian and French Masterpieces at the Royal Academy in London today, worsening Russia and the United Kingdom's already widening cultural rift, the Guardian reports. The exhibition, "From Russia: French and Russian Art Masterpieces of 1870-1925," billed as one of the highlights of the Royal Academy's year, was scheduled to open on January 26, but Irina Antonova, general director of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, said that institution and three others, the State Hermitage Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, would not loan artworks because of worries that they might be subject to legal claims, and Britain had not guaranteed their return. Works to go on display included Matisse's Dance, six Gaugins, important Cezannes, and works by Renoir and Picasso.

The cancellation follows another blow to relations between the two countries; the Kremlin decided last week to close the British Council's two regional offices in St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.