Information Communique from the State Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage announces:

Since February, 2007, the Review Board of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation has conducted quarterly activities in the State Hermitage. By the present moment there have been inspected 6 museum fund departments housing over 1200000 museum items. The State Hermitage regularly reports on the review progress in the mass media. The documented results of the Review Board’s work are forwarded to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. Several hundreds of items are currently being searched for. The absence of the most part of these items was registered as early as in 50-80-s, however, for different reasons, they were not written off in due manner. Besides, the period of the museum’s existence was accompanied by accumulation of some errors in the accounting documents, which are being uncovered in the course of the review. In this respect, 26 items of those undiscovered by the review were found later or their absence was duly documented (transferred to other museums, recoded, etc.)

The Review Board of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation extended its activity till the end of 2009. All the museum departments will have been reviewed by this moment. Only then will we be able to procure the final results of the review the State Hermitage stock.

In view of the "stir" made in the mass media in the course of celebrating the Days of the Hermitage about the museum losses, we would like to mark the non-professional character of numerous appraisals and statements, which is gradually turning into tradition.

It is quite miserable to observe such a reaction to the Hermitage fundamental openness which is already rare these days.