2003: The creation of the State Hermitage's Board of Trustees

The State Hermitage's Board of Trustees was formed as an international body containing authoritative Russian and foreign statespersons, representatives of culture and business.
As Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage, put it: "The Board of Trustees that we have created is something unique for Russia and it will, I hope, become a model for others. Its main purpose lies in finding a mechanism for combining the obligations of the state and private business in the cause of preserving our cultural heritage."
The activity of the Board of Trustees is aimed at the optimization of the financial strategy of the museum, the drawing of investments and securing of their use.
The first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the State Hermitage took place on 19 April 2003, with Vladimir Potanin, head of the Interros company, as a chairman.

Mikhail Shvydkoi, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage, and Vladimir Potanin, Chairman of the Interros company.
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