On 26-28 August 2004 members of the International Advisory Board of the State Hermitage held their annual meeting in the museum. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Advisory Board’s establishment.

The International Advisory Board was jointly established by the Hermitage and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1994 to support the museum’s development. The Advisory Board’s members include world renowned museum directors, as well as specialists and experts from the museum world. For the past decade the Advisory Board has been providing the Hermitage with ongoing advice and recommendations on a wide range of subjects determined by the Director of the Hermitage. The Advisory Board also endorses museum undertakings and policies, thus guaranteeing that the museum continues to attain to the highest international museum standards.

Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum, commented, "The International Advisory Board has been an invaluable partner over the past decade. We have been fortunate indeed to have such an esteemed group of museum specialists working with us. The Advisory Board’s advice has influenced numerous projects. The dramatic changes in the museum over the past ten years would have been inconceivable without its guiding hand."

Neil MacGregor, Director of The British Museum (London) and Chairman of the International Advisory Board, remarked, "Over the last ten years it has been a privilege for all of us to be associated with what must be the most beautiful museum in the world. Under Mikhail Borisovitch’s inspired leadership it has gone from success to success, transforming and renewing itself, becoming what the Hermitage ought to be for the twenty-first century."

Over the past decade the Advisory Board has assisted the Hermitage in developing and deploying policies in such areas as computerization of the museum’s collections, international merchandising, international public relations and fund raising, and the developing of a network of international scholarly cooperation. It has also devoted substantial attention to issues relating to the Greater Hermitage Project and in particular the curatorial programme of the General Staff Building on Palace Square.

At their 10th annual session members of the Advisory Board discussed technical issues, conservation and scientific matters, as well as general questions relating to the long-term program of developing the General Staff complex. The world-renowned architect Rem Koolhaas, who is a laureate of the Pritzker Prize; Thomas Krents, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York; Nikita Yavein and representatives of the Studio 44 architectural atelier also took part in the discussion, since they are collaborating with the State Hermitage in developing ideas for utilizing the General Staff building.

The International Advidsory Board

Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum

At the session of the International Advisory Board

Neil MacGregor, Director of The British Museum (London) and Chairman of the International Advisory Board