Culturemap‘s Steven Thompson reports on how a Russian embargo on art lending has but a crimp into the exhibition schedules of the Houston’s Museum of Natural Science, which had planned Treasures from the Hermitage: Russia’s Crown Jewels and forced the MFAH to forgo some objects it hoped to include in Gifts of the Sultans: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts. It all stems from an international dispute over artifacts displaced during WWII.