Between 5 and 8 June 2001 the State Hermitage hosted an international conference that was an important event in the scholarly life of the museum. More than 60 specialists from Russia, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Latvia, France, the United States and Japan took part in the conference. The formal opening took place in the Hermitage Theatre on 5 June. Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky made a short speech of welcome to the participants. The conference sessions discussed general religious, philosophical and ethical issues, as well as questions of the semantics and pictorial language of specific artefacts, their relation to the religious life of the period and to one or other confessional tradition. This conference on topical issues continued a line established in the Hermitage's exhibition activities of recent years: in the summer of 2000 the exhibitions "The Treasures of Echimiadzin. 1700 years of Christianity in Armenia", "Sinai. Byzantium. Rus'. Orthodox Art from the 6th to the early 20th centuries" and "Earthly Art - Heavenly Beauty. The Art of Islam" were operating concurrently.

At the conference

At the conference