LONDON—The Royal Academy offered £5,000 to "buy the silence" of two families demanding compensation from the Russian government for priceless artworks they said were stolen from their relatives after the Russian revolution, the Daily Telegraph reports. The 25 works in question include pieces by Matisse, van Gogh, and Picasso, which are on display in the Royal Academy's blockbuster "From Russia" exhibition. The academy admitted it offered the families £5,000 each if they agreed not to launch their claims while the paintings were on on display in London. "They wanted us to sign a document to that effect, said Pierre Konowaloff, who claims he is the rightful owner of 12 paintings, including Jeanne Samary by Renoir and Mont Sainte-Victoire by Cezanne. "They wanted to buy our silence."

Mary Anne Stevens, then the Royal Academy's acting secretary, offered the payments, proposed as donations to foundations run by Konowaloff and the other claimant, André-Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, at a meeting in Paris, where the two men live.

The news has the arts community up in arms, with art critic Brian Sewell saying it left him speechless. "It's so dirty, and that is really what the Royal Academy has become now," he said.

The exhibition has been fraught with difficulties since before it opened in January, first with Russian authorities threatening to cancel the show fearing the claims would prevent the works from returning to Russia, and then with Konowaloff and Delocque-Fourcaud demanding a share of the ticket sales.