The Russian company TMK. Photo: Wikipedia.

At a sprawling pipe factory in this gritty industrial town, an exhibit of Surrealist art, featuring reproductions of Mondrian, Malevich and Magritte, lines the walls. One of the company’s biggest shareholders, a collector of Surrealist works, says the art will stretch engineers’ minds and unlock workers’ creativity.

Commentary at the exhibit gets to an existential debate with Shakespearean flair: “Tube or Not Tube?” It is a fitting question for the factory owner, the Tube Metal Company, the biggest supplier of pipes to oil and natural gas producers.

Read full story at The New York Times.