The State Hermitage Museum: Information

Tsar Peter would be pleased
19 June 2009

Mikhail Piotrovsky
Director of The State Hermitage Museum
Honorary President
of the Hermitage-on-the-Amstel
foundation

It was he who established the traditions of mutual attraction and cooperation which bore many fruits of success. Among them there is a modest Hermitage • Amsterdam centre and a grandiose Petersburg whose original name derived from the Dutch language.

The Hermitage • Amsterdam centre is a result of many years of hard work and experiments. Among them there have been: exhibitions (ten exhibitions in total), sponsor projects, restoration works, the Hermitage for Children project. Preparatory research has been carried out in economical and construction fields. Such a thoroughly elaborated project is deemed to succeed.

The Hermitage • Amsterdam centre was established in the atmosphere of such mutual attraction and goodwill that otherwise can rarely be found in the world. For that we are grateful not only to our first friend Ernst Veen and his staff, but also to all our friends from the museums in the Netherlands who accepted us in their family. We are grateful to the Hermitage-on-the-Amstel foundation, the Hermitage Friends in the Netherlands, the mayors of Amsterdam and their staff, our counterparts from Dutch museums, a big group of officials in Holland, journalists and ordinary people, private and corporate sponsors. We are especially touched by the long-term personal support by HER MAJESTY Queen Beatrix, HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS Prince Willem-Alexander and HER ROYAL HIGHNESS Princess Maxima. A remarkable example of international goodwill was blessed by the high officials of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture. More than one hundred employees of the Hermitage worked for the realization of our common dream. The project born in the atmosphere of such a sincere friendship is deemed to succeed.

Together we have established a new cooperation model where we managed to find a mechanism for uniting state, non-profit and private structures, combining various cultural and organizational traditions. The Hermitage has been granted an opportunity for a better fulfillment of its global mission of a world museum. In Amsterdam there has emerged a new centre of cultural attraction belonging both to Russia and to Europe. It enriches the life of Amsterdam and attracts culture lovers to St Petersburg.

According to our plan, this centre will become not just a model for innovative relationships, but also a place where museums and other cultural institutes from the whole Russia and the whole Europe will work together in order to create a truly common cultural space. That was our intention from the very beginning, and now there are new opportunities for that.

Tsar Peter founded the first public museum in Russia. Many of the astonishing exhibits of the Kunstkammer were bought by Tsar Peter himself in Holland. The visitors were encouraged to come to the museum by a free shot of vodka. Nowadays people are ready to stand in long queues for hours in order to visit this museum.

The museum tradition has come to Russia from Europe. It comes back here in a new, enriched and useful for Europe form.
Tsar Peter would be pleased.

19.06.2009