Amsterdam's Historical Museum had offered to restore the 170 sketches in the album, which include works by a pupil of Rembrandt, in preparation for a major exhibition on Peter the Great and Holland, a spokesman for the museum said.
Funding for the restoration work was provided by Prince Bernard of The Netherlands' cultural fund. But leading Russian academics protested when Russia's Culture Ministry gave its initial permission for the album to be taken to Holland, fearing that it would not be returned.
"The album is being sent to Holland supposedly for restoration work ... but it is clear that it will become the object of considerable scholarly interest for Dutch scholars, thereby depriving Russian scholars of their priority in examining the album," wrote prominent and influential literary historian, Dmitry Likhachev, 90, in an open letter to President Boris Yeltsin.
"It is in your power to prevent this unprecedented disaster from befalling the Library of the Academy of Sciences," Likhachev concluded.
Likhachev is widely regarded in Russian academic circles as a leading light and cultural doyen within the Academy of Sciences.
The album was packed in a suitcase and ready to leave for Amsterdam at the beginning of last week when its export license was revoked by Deputy Culture Minister Mikhail Shvidko, colleagues confirmed.
Culture Ministry officials deny that Likhachev's letter influenced the decision to revoke the license -- Germany in World War II as another example of "cultural chauvinism" in Russia.
More than 100 Academy of Sciences Library workers and scholars signed an open letter to Likhachev, pointing out that the terms of the restoration agreement require the return of the album within two months and denying Likhachev's implication that Leonov was involved in any impropriety or secret deals with the Dutch.
Likhachev himself was unavailable for comment, but Pavel Khoroshylov, deputy minister of culture responsible for the import and export of art and artifacts, denied that politics or Likhachev were behind the decision.
"How can Likhachev influence the law? This is strictly a technical problem," said Khoroshylov. "The [export] license was issued for a specific time period, and the album was not exported when it was meant to be exported. When the library presents the correct documents, I foresee no problem in reissuing the license."
Bureaucratic delays, however, have already caused the album to miss the Peter the Great exhibition, Kolpakova said, adding that the condition of the sketches is "deteriorating fast."
The album of sketches was compiled by 18th-century Dutch diplomat Andrei Vinius, a contemporary of Peter the Great, and has been in the Russian Academy of Sciences Library since the 1920s.
Funding for the restoration will be reserved until March 26, at which point the money will revert to the Prince Bernard Fund, said a spokesman for the Amsterdam Historical Museum.
"It would be a great pity both for Russia and The Netherlands if this generous offer ... was not taken up," said a spokesman for the cultural section of the Dutch Embassy in Moscow, who met representatives from the Culture Ministry.
"The financial situation in Russia is clear. ... This beautiful album is decaying in Russia. It will be impossible [under present circumstances] to restore this treasure of culture," he said. "The ministry is under very big outside pressure, but I am confident that this will come to a good end."
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