The Hermitage in 2009

The Hermitage is a living and dynamically developing museum that conducts fruitful exhibition, scientific and educative activity.

More than 2 million 300 thousand people visited the Hermitage in 2009.

Opening of new permanent exhibitions was an important event in the life of the museum. A remarkable collection of monuments of Japanese art is represented at the new museum exhibition of the Oriental Department. For the first time there is such an interesting and full display of Siberian antiquities in the halls on the first floor of the Winter Palace. The exhibition the Culture and Art of the Caucasus has been supplemented with a section Art of Daghestan in the 14th - Early 20th Centuries. The exhibition Art and Culture of the antique towns of the Northern Black Sea Coast has opened in the restored hall on the first floor of the New Hermitage. Here a modern approach to exhibiting antique monuments is combined with the museum traditions of the 19th century.

26 exhibitions organised by the Hermitage have taken place in 2009. 14 museum exhibitions have been displayed in other museums of Russia and aboard. A large-scale exhibition the Perfect Victory. Dedication to the 300th Anniversary of the Battle of Poltava displayed this summer has become the major event of the exhibition activity of the museum.

This year within the framework of the Hermitage 20/21 project connoisseurs of the contemporary art have got acquainted with the works by a famous St Petersburg photographer Boris Smelov and with contemporary British art.

The opening of the Hermitage • Amsterdam centre in June has become the most important event in the cultural life in the Netherlands. The exhibition Russian Imperial Court of the 19th - the beginning of 20th century was a great success. It was visited by more than 600 thousand people.

The first and most important stage of the project on restoration of the General Staff building fell on the year 2009. For the first time such an important project on restoration of an architectural monument of St Petersburg was implemented with active participation of the Hermitage as a full partner.

19 scientific conferences conducted in the Hermitage in 2009 indicate that the museum is an active scientific centre.

More than 30 thousand excursions have been conducted by museum workers for Russian and foreign citizens.

Scientific and educative activity of the Hermitage is supported by publishing programmes. In 2009 the Hermitage Publishing House has published 48 scientific and popular editions.

This year the collection of the Hermitage has been supplemented with new exhibits among which there is the sabre of Grand Duke Nikolay Nikolaevich Romanov Senior, a gift of Dukes Nikolay Romanovich and Dmitry Romanovich Romanovs. In October the State Hermitage acquired the right to preserve and protect the Alexander Column in Palace Square.

The year 2009 is coming to its end. The Hermitage steps into the period of the last five years before its 250th anniversary. The museum has many plans for the years to come, and in view of its anniversary the Hermitage will open new exhibitions and will entertain with interesting events in cultural life.

At the exhibition The Perfect Victory
29 May 2009

The opening of a permanent exhibition The Antiquities of Siberia
20 May 2009

The opening of the Hermitage • Amsterdam Centre
20 June 2009

Hermitage Readings Dedicated to the Memory of Academician Boris Piotrovsky
13 February 2009

At the exhibition Book Kunstkammer in the Hermitage
1 April 2009

Solemn ceremony dedicated to the 175th anniversary of the unveiling of the Alexander Column
10 September 2009

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