The latest meeting of the Board of Trustees of the State Hermitage

The latest meeting of the Board of Trustees of the State Hermitage Museum was held on February 24th, 2011 in Moscow. The main question on the agenda were plans being made in preparation for the celebration of the State Hermitage Museum’s 250 year anniversary in 2014. By its 250 year anniversary, the Hermitage plans to complete the second construction stage of the museum depository, complete the restoration of the East Wing of the General Staff Building and open exhibits dedicated to the art of the 19th-21st centuries there, as well as begin the restoration of the Auxiliary Palace, completely revamp the Hermitage’s website, prepare several large exhibits, including some dedicated to new additions to the museum and the work of its restorers. Plans are also in place to publish a series of academic catalogues of the Hermitage Collection and an “Encyclopedia of the Hermitage.”

The Trustees discusses the budget of the Hermitage for 2010-2012, the 2011 exhibition projects and the creation of the nonprofit organization called “The Special Foundation for the Management of the Endowment Fund for the Development of the State Hermitage Museum.”

At the previous meeting of the Board of Trustees on June 19th, 2010, it was decided that the creation of an endowment fund for the development of the State Hermitage Museum and a specialized foundation to manage it would be a wise move. The fund will also provide targeted support to the creation, preservation, restoration and acquisition of cultural treasures, including supporting the development of the Museum Foundation of the Russian Federation. V.O. Potanin announced that he was prepared to become one of the founders of the Fund and donate five million U.S. dollars for the formation of the endowment fund.

On February 24th, 2011, a meeting of the foundering of the “The Special Foundation for the Management of the Endowment Fund for the Development of the State Hermitage Museum” was held, and the Charter of the Foundation was approved. To co-founders of the Foundation, in addition to V.O. Potanin, were M.B. Piotrovsky, and the State Hermitage Museum itself, by special permission of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. This will be the first endowment fund for the support of culture that has truly been supplied with financial resources to complete the goals set for it.