The opening of the 2001-02 season for the Friends of the Hermitage Club

On 23 October 2001 a reception was held in the State Hermitage marking the opening of a new season for the Friends of the Hermitage Club. Museum director Mikhail Piotrovsky welcomed the Friends in the Hermitage Theatre. The guests listened to a lecture by Dr A.Yu. Alexeyev, head of the Department of Archaeology, entitled "The Scythians — Asiatics and Europeans". (The lecture was simultaneously translated into English.) Then the Friends of the Hermitage were offered a tour of the exhibition "The Gold Deer of Eurasia" in Russian and English. Their many questions were answered by Ye.F. Korolkova, senior researcher in the Department of Archaeology.

Dr A.Yu. Alexeyev, head of the Department of Archaeology

The lecture in the Hermitage Theatre

Friends of the Hermitage viewing the exhibition