Completion of the restoration and return to permanent display of the Hermitage tapestry Assumption, Burial and Coronation from the Story of the Virgin series

In February 2003 the restoration of the Hermitage tapestry Assumption, Burial and Coronation from the Story of the Virgin Mary series at the De Wit Royal Manufacturers of Tapestry, Mechelen, Belgium was completed.

Over many years the Story of the Virgin Mary was not exhibited because of the poor condition; after the restoration it was displayed at the exhibition Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, March 14 - June 19, 2002. Now the Assumption, Burial and Coronation are on museum’s the permanent display. This was the first foreign exhibition to include the tapestry from the Story of the Virgin Mary series. Previously it had been shown only in temporary exhibitions within the Hermitage. Today the restored Assumption, Burial and Coronation adorns the museum’s permanent display.

On 17 December 2002 the Hermitage hosted a round table devoted to the results of the restoration of the tapestry at the De Wit Royal Manufacturers of Tapestry, Mechelen, Belgium. Participants were fabric curators and restorers from the Hermitage, the Museum of Anthropology, the Pavlovsk and Peterhof Museum Preserves, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Artistic Fabrics attached to Moscow State Textile University.

The international project to restore the Hermitage tapestry is not a commercial undertaking. Its purpose is to attract Russian and international funds to save a unique masterpiece from the Hermitage collection from destruction.

De Wit Royal Manufacturers of Tapestry, Mechelen, Belgium www.dewit.be