News List

International Hermitage Friends’ Day

Published 09 December 2017

On 8 December 2017, the Museum welcomed all Hermitage Friends from around the world to the Restoration and Open Storage Centre Hermitage Staraya Derevnya for the traditional annual event – celebration of the International Hermitage Friends’ Day.

Following a good tradition, according to which the Friends are always among the first to see all new museum premises and facilities, on that evening the guests were introduced to the new Hermitage exhibitions: open storages of historic showcases and of Russian costumes and textiles.

The official part of the evening began with the word of welcome from Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky who told the Friends about the main events of the past year in the State Hermitage Museum, and introduced the Hermitage Friends’ delegations from Italy, Finland, the UK, the Netherlands and the USA who had come for the celebration of the International Hermitage Friends' Day.

He expressed his gratitude to the Friends and Donors who rendered charitable assistance to the State Hermitage Museum in 2017:

- Marking the completion of the long-running project “New Frames for the Old Masters from the Hermitage Collection”, Honorary Diplomas were bestowed on the project’s Dutch sponsors Joost van Neck and Jan Starke. The diplomas were received on their behalf by Martine van Straaten, Secretary of the Foundation Hermitage Friends in the Netherlands. The diploma for Kees Simons, the maker of the unique frames, was handed over to Marlies Kleiterp, head of the exhibition department at the Hermitage-Amsterdam Centre. The project “New Frames for the Old Masters from the Hermitage Collection” was initiated over ten years ago: these frames, similar to those in which Dutch artists’ works would have been exhibited in the 17th century, were crafted according to the traditional Dutch technology in the unique frame-making studio in the Netherlands.

- Prof. Piotrovsky introduced the gifts from three outstanding Russian performers – Anna Netrebko, Xenia Rappoport and Diana Vishnyova, who have donated their own stage costumes to the museum collection and joined the Hermitage Friends’ Club. He personally handed over a Friends’ card to Diana Vishnyova, who was present at the celebration.

During the official part of the evening, there were words of welcome from Dr. Vyacheslav Fyodorov, head of the Department of the History of Russian Culture, who told the Friends about the problems, goals and prospects for the open storage; Dr. Nina Tarasova, curator of the Russian costume collection, and Tatyana Semyonova, curator of historical showcases.

The guests were then treated to a concert programme featuring leading opera soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre: Olga Pudova, Yulia Matochkina, Vladimir Tselebrovsky and Yana Zubova.

The Friends viewed the new permanent displays at the Hermitage Staraya Derevnya in the company of the Centre’s tour guides. The evening program ended with the cocktail in the main vestibule.