"They have helped transform many aspects of life in this country, including the property market and football's Premier League, but the Russian oligarchs stand accused of neglecting their own cultural heritage," the paper said.
The Sunday Telegraph quoted Christopher Parr, a lawyer leading the fund-raising campaign for the exhibition, as saying that all the wealthy Russians, including Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, have refused to help.
"It's extremely disappointing. We've approached all the rich Russians, but they don't seem to want to know," Parr said.
According to Parr, the exhibition would cost 3-5 million British pounds ($6-10 million) to stage the collection that includes the original costumes worn at the premiere of Russia's national Swan Lake ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky in 1877 and backdrops painted by Pablo Picasso and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
"It is a big problem because we have had lots of interest from British supporters but they all say that they will only help if the Russians do," the paper quoted Parr as saying.
The lawyer blamed worsening relations between Britain and Russia since the poisoning of former Russian security service defector Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 and the Kremlin's subsequent refusal to extradite the only suspect, Andrei Lugovoi.
"The Litvinenko murder definitely seems to have had an effect. There doesn't seem to be the willingness any more to support an Anglo-Russian project of this kind," the paper quoted Parr as saying.
