During the Hermitage Days traditionally held on 7-9 December the museum sums up the previous year's results and announces its plans for future. This year celebration started on 5 December. The Hermitage Days were inaugurated by a meeting of the museum's personnel, where Director Mikhail B. Piotrovsky described what has been done during the previous year and what the museum expects to do in the near future.
At the press conference The Hermitage in 2003 given in the Hermitage Theater, Mikhail B. Piotrovsky presented to journalists his album The Hermitage of the series Great Museums of the World, published by SLOVO, and books for children published by Arcada for the Hermitage School Center. Along with other publications, these books featured in the exhibition The Hermitage in the World of Publications displayed in the theater's foyer. Journalists were also showed two new Hermitage acquisitions - a unique woven sumakh carpet dating from the late 15th - early 16th centuries and a rare Russian tapestry Elephant and Horse created at the Imperial Tapestry Works in St. Petersburg in 1784.

After the press conference, journalists were invited to the exhibition Russians in Paris (St. Petersburg - Paris,
1800-1830). The same evening the Hermitage Theater hosted the award ceremony of the 4th public relations competition PRo6a 2003.

The two key figures of the exhibition Russians in Paris, opened on 6 December in the Alexander Hall, are Napoleon I and Alexander I. Creations of Russian and French artists present a wide panorama of art of the first quarter of the 19th century, the age of Napoleonic wars.

The same day the Hermitage Board of Trustees met.

On 8 December Director Mikhail B. Piotrovsky had an online meeting with visitors to the museum's website in the Hermitage Cafemax Internet cafe. Members of the International Club of the Hermitage Friends were offered a special program.

At a meeting in the Hermitage Theater the project The Hermitage - Tatiana Parfenova was presented and awards were conferred on sponsors. The event was closed by a concert of the State Hermitage Orchestra.

On 9 December, the Feast of St George, the central event was the ceremony of opening the Museum of the Guards in the General Staff.

The same day national awards of the Russian Federation were conferred on the Hermitage staff. Order of Honor was awarded to A.K. Baturin, Deputy Director Personnel. Medals of the Order for Services to Fatherland II were conferred on Yu.P. Kalashnik, Director of the Department of Antiquities, and V.M. Potin, Chief Research Assistant of the Department of Numismatics. For achievement in the preservation and development of culture and art were awarded
O.N. Bogdanova, Director of the Department of Exhibition Equipment, I.S. Grigoryeva, Director of the Section of Drawings, Department of West European Art, and
I.A. Kureyeva, Director of the School Center. Awards for achievement in culture were conferred on N.Yu. Guseva, Deputy Director of the Department of Russian Culture,
O.G. Kostyuk, Deputy Director Storage of the Department of West European Culture, and S.S. Moldovanova, Senior Research Assistant of the School Center's Methodology Division.

The Hermitage Days were closed by concert of the Admiralty Orchestra conducted by Capt. Aleksey Karabanov in the Hermitage Theater. The concert also opened the 4th international festival Admiralty Music. Music of the Russian Imperial Guards, military marches of all the Life Guards' regiments and national anthems of the Russian Empire were performed to celebrate the opening of the Museum of the Guards.

Director Mikhail B. Piotrovsky is on the online meeting with visitors of the museum's website in the Hermitage Cafemax Internet cafe

Natalia Avetisian, General Director of the publishing company SLOVO is presenting the album The Hermitage of the series Great Museums of the World by Mikhail B. Piotrovsky

Iryna Kureyeva, Director of School Center Methodology Section, is presenting goods for children produced by the publishing company Arcada

At the exhibition Russians in Paris!

At the meeting in the Hermitage Theater