Russian President Vladimir Putin President (L) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visit the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, June 21, 2013. REUTERS/Anatoly Maltsev/Pool
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel told President Vladimir Putin on Friday that German art seized by the Soviets in the wake of World War Two should be repatriated to Germany, a claim the Russian leader swiftly rejected.
The tense exchange took place as they opened an exhibition at the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg during a trip by Merkel to Russia. The exhibition about the Bronze Age includes 600 items carried off by the Soviet Union as war reparations, according to the German government.
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