The State Hermitage Museum Writes to Inform You

15.03.2013. In connection the flash mobs in the museum becoming more frequent, the State Hermitage Museum writes to inform you of the following:

In the circumstances of the constant provocations and increasingly strained mindset of a certain category of citizens, the employees of the Service of Museum Security are compelled to regard any violations of the Rules for Visitors to the Hermitage (in particular, of clause 4.1.7 of those Rules, stating that it is prohibited to stage any social/political, theatrized, ceremonial or other events without the approval of the museum, the goal of which does not correspond to the goal of viewing and studying the expositions of the museum) as an attempt to distract from its primary operations, connected with the preclusion of illegal acts, both in relation to visitors to the museum and in relation to ensuring the safety of the collection. It is precisely safety considerations that are the basis of the rules for visiting the museum.

Deliberate video recording gives various types of activity in the museum the character of a planned action. We cannot exclude the possibility that the participants of such flash mobs may act in the interest of certain parties, conducting their meetings in order to distract attention and facilitate the theft of works of art or the property of visitors to the museum.