On 26 October 2006, the Academic Council of the Hermitage met in a session at which the agenda was dominated by discussion of the role of curators in the Hermitage in the new, 21st century. The Hermitage is today one of the most quickly developing museums in the world, while at the same time it is an institution with longstanding and carefully preserved traditions. The combination of these two principles is one of the main peculiarities of the Hermitage, but it also presents significant complications for its functioning. Another special feature of the Hermitage is that it is not only a storehouse of monuments of art but also a major research center, whose staff fulfill the functions of curators and scientific investigators. Prior to the 1917 Revolution, the Imperial Hermitage had only 12 curators. Today there are more than 200. To what extent have the functions of curator and methods of his work changed? What should the nature of a Hermitage curator be in the 21st century?

The session of the Academic Council was opened by its chairman, Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky. After giving an appraisal of the situation that has developed around the Hermitage and naming the problems which the museum has encountered, he said that it is essential to develop some sort of code for curators which defines the circumstances in which a museum employee can become a curator and how we should evaluate the performance of curators. The research departments should take seriously the Commission's check on the collections. The verification process is proceeding transparently and the Hermitage site regularly will post summary results of the check. "We should draw lessons from what has happened and become still better," Mikhail Piotrovsky said in conclusion.

Deputy Director for Research Georgy Vilinbakhov remarked in his address that in the Hermitage there have long been special relations between curators and exhibit items; there is an unspoken but well understood code of conduct for curators. Any revolutionary changes would be dangerous. Traditions should be dealt with carefully. On the other hand, over the past several decades the functions of the Hermitage have changed and become more diverse. Therefore it is necessary for the organization of work to be precise and sometimes rigid. The division between curators and researchers that exists in many museums is not always appropriate for the Hermitage, where preservation of many collections requires not only custodians but specialists in a given field. Georgy Vilinbakhov emphasized that the attitude towards curators and researchers in the museum should be changed. The task of other museum subdivisions is first and foremost to ensure the work of the research part. One must not forget that the Hermitage is one entity. "What happens in one department and with one curator affects us all," he stressed. "The 21st century demands of us that we live as a single organism."

Director of the Department of the Ancient World A.A. Trofimov devoted his speech to the issue of the curator's place in the system of museum relations. The status of curators in the Hermitage, their true role in the implementation of projects should be higher. Even the most perfect system of security cannot replace the human factor. Curators should grow in stature and curators should be trusted.

Director of the Oriental Department G.L. Semenov remarked that recently life in the Hermitage has changed, that activities have become more diversified. Therefore in order to define the role of the curator in the future development of the museum one should try several models and then choose the best from among them. Among the suggestions advanced by Semenov was conclusion of contracts with curators for a certain period of time, for example, for five , seven or ten years. The question of extending their contract should be decided not by the head of the department personally but by a special commission. When a curator has reached a certain, specially established age, he should hand over custodial duties to a successor. Curators should have assistants, since this will help to prepare staff. The old system of preparing curators through service as laboratory assistants is not effective, since not every such assistant is capable of becoming a curator. In conclusion, Semonov admitted that he was making controversial suggestions, that they should nonetheless be tried out in practice since changes had to be made in museum work.

Many members of the Academic Council and Hermitage staff took part in the discussion. The appraisals of the role of curators they offered were diverse, but most commonly the opinion expressed was that only a scholar can be a good curator, insofar as scholars judge monuments of art not by their market price but by their historical and artistic value.