SHORT TAKES : Russian Art of 1800s to Tour

The first collection of 19th-Century Russian paintings to be exhibited outside the Soviet Union will be displayed at the Dallas Museum of Art starting in October, museum officials said.

“This exhibition will forever change our idea of Russia and our idea of 19th-Century art,” said Richard Brettel, museum director. “These are sweeping masterpieces, some better than anything done by the American or French Impressionists.”

The exhibition, which will be displayed in Dallas through December and then in Omaha, includes 98 paintings culled from several museums across the Soviet Union. Gordon Dee Smith, president of a Texas-based nonprofit group called Inter Cultura, which fosters international cultural dialogue, said the exhibition “will stun art experts.”