Words of Greeting to the Friends of the Hermitage from Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage

Dear Friends of the Hermitage,

In November 2006 the International Hermitage Friends' Club will celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Over the course of these ten years, the Friends have been helping the State Hermitage Museum in implementing its numerous development programs, taking most direct part in the museum life. And we are grateful to you for your love and dedication to the Hermitage, for your support, especially in difficult times for the museum.

Our organization is truly international. Friends of the Hermitage are to be found in many different countries around the world: Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Lichtenstein, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Israel, Japan, Australia, China, Lithuania, Thailand and the Ukraine. But we also take pride in the fact that the very first to join the Hermitage Friends' Club were Russians, many of whom remain with us to this day.

We congratulate all of our Friends throughout the world on this first anniversary of the Hermitage Friends' Club.

The decade-long existence of the Club proves the undoubted success of the program among the museum visitors. During all these years we have strived to ensure that the Friends are among the first to learn about all the important events going on in the museum and to visit new exhibitions and exhibition spaces. We have made every effort to make certain that we will not disappoint your expectations in the future as well.

In the season 2006-2007 which is so special for us all, we will offer for your attention the extended program of traditional Club meetings. Our Friends will visit the new temporary exhibitions, meet with specialists of the museum and learn many interesting things about the history and collections of the Hermitage.

Moreover, we have developed a new program of privileges for the Hermitage Friends. With the introduction of new membership cards, Friends will be given free entrance to the Hermitage Amsterdam, to the Hermitage Rooms in Somerset House (London) and to the Hermitage Centre in Las Vegas.

We are proud of our Friends. We value their support. We await their visits to the Hermitage in the new season and in the new decade ahead.

Stay with us! Make Friends with the Hermitage!

Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky
Director of the State Hermitage Museum