ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- Spirited away from Germany in the chaos of 1945 and then hidden in darkness and secrecy, three masterpieces of 19th-century painting were unveiled yesterday for a first, brief public glimpse in more than half a century.
The three works of art -- painted by van Gogh, Degas and Gauguin, and displayed on an ornate stage -- were offered by the State Hermitage Museum as a tantalizing hint of an exhibit opening next month: 74 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings that were seized in Germany by the Soviet army at the close of World War II and taken to the Soviet Union.
Until recent months, all of the canvases were thought to be either lost or destroyed. Their reappearance has been welcomed by the art world as just short of miraculous. The paintings are by Matisse, Renoir, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso, among others. But they are also the cause of a dispute between Russia and Germany for which no solution is in sight.
For Germany is eagerly waiting both to see the paintings and to get them back.
"Russia is legally committed to give the art back -- by international law and by the Hague Convention, which prohibits confiscating art," said Eberhard von Puttkamer, the German consul in St. Petersburg, who was invited to yesterday's showing.
The Russians admit to no wrongdoing -- but acknowledge that keeping the paintings out of sight, stored in a basement for 50 years, gives at least the appearance of some uncertainty about ownership.
A press release prepared for yesterday's unveiling attempted to put the best light on things, pointing out the paintings' advantage in having been in complete darkness for 50 years: The paintings are closer to their original condition than they would otherwise be.
Mr. von Puttkamer said that Russia had agreed in 1992 to return any art taken from the ruins of Hitler's Germany, but that the Russian government had subsequently done nothing.
"It's poisonous for bilateral relations and for international relations," said Mr. von Puttkamer, "because if you have a state that doesn't keep the treaties it signs, how can it be considered reliable in the future?
"We're very unhappy about it. I don't think, if these paintings remain in Russian museums, it will make Russians very happy -- because it will always be a negative point that these paintings are not where they belong."
Mikhail Shvikoi, Russia's deputy minister of culture, said the two countries were not approaching the bargaining table on an equal footing. One had been the aggressor and the other the victim in World War II. It just happened that the victim became the victor in the end.
"The illegality of taking pieces of art from Germany is still an open question," Mr. Shvikoi said. The Russian government, he said, would have to consider public opinion before agreeing to return the art.
As he spoke, a magnificent curtain descended on the stage at the Hermitage -- a former palace of the czars -- once again hiding Degas' "Place de la Concorde," van Gogh's "The White House at Night," and Gauguin's "Two Sisters from Tahiti."
Painted on the curtain, in case anyone missed the point about Russia's claims to ownership, was a gigantic Russian double-headed eagle.
Trying to strike a more cooperative note, the director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Pyotrovsky, said the exhibit was as an act of good faith: The issues were not only Russian restitution to Germany, but also the return of thousands of art works that the Nazis looted from the Soviet Union.
"We are prepared to show a list of what Russia lost," Mr. Pyotrovsky said, "and everything we have."
"It's a problem between lawyers and politicians," said Mr. Shvikoi.
"It's certainly a political issue now," said Mr. von Puttkamer, "far, far beyond the cultural sphere."