State Hermitage Museum Electronic Catalogue
De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti Groups Join the Project

On 6 March 2008, De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti Groups announced their participation in creating an Integrated Electronic Catalogue for the State Hermitage Museum.

The Museum System from Gallery Systems (USA) database building software was installed in the Hermitage in February 2002. The software was developed in the early 80’s and has been continuously customized ever since. Today, the Museum System is used in over 100 museums and art galleries around the world, including the foremost Metropolitan Museum of Art and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Originally developed for western museums, the software did not recognize the preservation science and record keeping specifications of Russian museums. The developer did the important job of eliminating existing discrepancies, making it possible to enter general descriptions of museum items as required by the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography of the Russian Federation.

More than 280,000 records have been entered over the past five years. They include general information on both individual items (author, name, description, material, art, dimensions) and their arrival at the museum (when and how they were received, previous owner, etc.).

The most complete information so far entered in the database is on the collection of the Departments of Western European Fine Arts (72%), Western European Applied Art (67%), and Oriental Department (90%).

The Electronic Catalogue’s development plan is to continue entering information on the collections of various Hermitage departments, such as the jewelry collection; and to extend catalogue applications. The database is going to be integrated into the academic-scientific departments so that they can use entered information and provide more detailed scientific descriptions. The Exhibitions module is to be brought in line with all the requirements of the Russian Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication, as well as those of the State Hermitage. This will contribute to the automated coordination of the movements of, and the enhancement of control over, museum items.

Project financing is provided jointly by the State Hermitage Museum and the Hermitage Foundation of Canada Inc., which have now been joined by De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti Groups.

Svetlana Adaksina, Chief Curator, Deputy Director of the State Hermitage for Inventory and Storage

Nigel Kieser, Head of De Beers Moscow Representative Office

Gareth Penny, Managing Director of De Beers Family of Companies

Thero Setiloane, Executive Vice President Business Sustainability, AngloGold Ashanti

Robert Kaszanits, President of the State Hermitage Museum
Foundation of Canada

Kirill Romanov, Curator of Documentation and Records Department of the State Hermitage Museum