Sale-minded German city to lend Monet painting to Japan

Krefeld, Germany - A cash-strapped city that has enraged German art-lovers with plans to sell off a spare painting by Claude Monet said Monday it would lend the French Impressionist artwork to Japan for three months. The painting, The Houses of Parliament in London, has hung in Krefeld Museum near the Dutch border since soon after it was painted and is now estimated to have grown to 20 million euros (25 million dollars) in value. It will depart on loan to Tokyo for a major, three-month Monet show starting early next April. While private collectors regularly trade art to improve the focus of their collections, critics have attacked Krefeld over plans to sell the painting to raise money for museum renovations. The German city says it does not need a lone Monet, since better Impressionist museums are just a short drive away. A city spokesman said a decision to sell or not had not yet been taken and the loan did not represent any tendency either way. The loan agreement with the Japanese exhibitors had been signed a year ago. Krefeld has been hit by a decline in tax revenues as its textile industry has shrunk. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Sale-minded German city to lend Monet painting to Japan

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