Joint Project of the State Hermitage and Sberbank: “Artists in Sberbank Online”

The State Hermitage and Sberbank of Russia have announced that they are collaborating on a new project – “Artists in Sberbank Online”. The Sberbank Online banking app will include a selection of welcome screens and digital greetings cards featuring paintings by French artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the Hermitage collection.

Up until 15 July 2020, users of Sberbank Online will have access to images of works by famous Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including paintings by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Alfred Sisley and Vincent Van Gogh.

Although the Hermitage is temporarily not admitting visitors, the museum is continuing to do everything possible to avoid separating the public from the collections of one of the world’s greatest museums. The project with Sberbank of Russia, a long-standing partner of the Hermitage, is aimed at making part of the Hermitage’s stocks accessible to the broadest range of users and to give the joy of an encounter with masterpieces even in the conditions of the pandemic.

Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, said:

“The time of innovations that has arrived is a reminder that a museum has several functions: to preserve, study and make collections accessible. The process of making collections accessible has today shifted online. It must be said that to a considerable extent it already had. Today we are attempting to combine two kinds of such work. One is to ‘receive’ visitors in the Hermitage. The other is to use different technologies to tell people about the museum. I think that to some degree this is a recipe for the future existence of culture as a whole.”

Alexei Kruglov, Director of the Digital Platform division of Sberbank of Russia, stated:

“We are delighted that paintings from the collection of one of the world’s leading museums have become a little closer of tens of millions of our clients. For some this will be a first acquaintance with the Impressionists; others will smile at the sight of one of their favourite masterpieces. Collaboration with the Hermitage has inspired us and Sberbank Online will definitely continue to interact with the world of art. We would like there to be a place for the beautiful more often in our daily lives.”