MOSCOW, November 8. An exhibition of African secular art opened in the capital's Chistye Prudy Gallery, correspondent reports.
«The exhibition is relevant. There is a growing interest in this issue in society itself. (People — ed.) would be happy to go to a museum of African art if there was such a thing,» said gallery general director Valery Novikov. 
The opening ceremony was preceded by African compositions on tom-toms.
The gallery presents decorative arts from Tanzania, Mozambique, Mali, Congo, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia, Cameroon, as well as paintings from Tanzania, Congo, Ivory Coast and Somalia. Among them, visitors can see wooden sculptures, masks, relief panels, as well as bronze and ivory sculptures, the gallery reports.
Objects of art describe scenes from the living world of the African continent, the life of tribes and the people themselves.
Many of these exhibits were made in the second half of the 20th century, when Africa experienced an increase in creative activity against the backdrop of decolonization.
Captions for the sculptures state that these works of art were brought back to the USSR in the 1970s, including from Guinea, Congo and Tanzania, and later from Mozambique. According to the director of the gallery, the exhibits came to the USSR from private collections. “The Soviet Union had many contacts… Our specialists lived in Africa, bought them, and brought them here,” he said.
The exhibition is available to visitors until December 3, 2023.