The State Hermitage will not be able to export works of art abroad. This was stated by the general director of the museum Mikhail Piotrovsky.
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According to him, next year exhibitions will be held in the branches of the Hermitage in Russian cities. In particular, a series of exhibitions dedicated to Peter I is expected in 2023.
For the Hermitage, this decision was forced and largely provoked by the difficulties surrounding the return of the Morozov collection, says Sergey Uvarov, Candidate of Art History, columnist for Izvestia.
“Mikhail Piotrovsky often says that the main task of the museum is not to entertain the public with exhibitions, but to preserve the exhibits. In this case, as we can see, the director is true to his credo: he is not ready to expose the property entrusted to him to the slightest risk, even if for this he has to give up his bright exhibition activity. Here it is important for us to understand that a picture from our collections that has not been issued abroad means a picture that has not been received from there. After all, everything is based on the exchange. It turns out that we will not see masterpieces from foreign collections in the Hermitage – and, probably, for longer than a year, since the exchange usually does not take place simultaneously. But in such an unpredictable situation, this is probably the only way out, ”the expert explained.
On May 5, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova announced the return to Russia of all paintings, graphic works and sculptures from the collection of patrons Mikhail and Ivan Morozov. She added that it took about 20 days to transport all the items in the collections.
Earlier, in March, information appeared about France’s refusal to return paintings from the Morozov collection. information appeared on March 12. From September 22 to March 3, the works were supposed to be exhibited at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, but in February, the French authorities extended the exhibition until April 3. They explained this decision by the high interest of visitors and the difficulty of returning the paintings to Russia due to sanctions.