Press Conference of the State Hermitage Museum and the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory

The Lomonosov Porcelain Factory (formerly the Imperial Porcelain Factory) was founded to the order of Peter's daughter Elizaveta Petrovna in 1744. It was at this factory that the first samples of Russian porcelain articles were produced. For more than 150 years the Museum of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory has been collecting the examples of the artwork of the factory painters and functioning as a creative laboratory for inventing new patterns for the china articles. The factory and the museum has been an integral artistic and production institution.

In 1993 the Lomonosov Factory was privatized. According to the decrees of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation adopted from 1998 to 2000 the museum collection became the part of the Museum Fund of Russia owned by the state. The order of 1 February 2001 stipulates that the collection of the factory museum is assigned to the State Hermitage Museum under the Museum's operational management as the factory and the factory museum both have petitioned for.

One of the most acute problems of today is the location of the Lomonosov Factory Museum collection.

On the instruction of the Government of the Russian Federation the Ministry of Culture, the State Hermitage and the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory co-ordinated the text of the agreement specifying that the whole collection transferred under the operational management of the Hermitage is left at the premises of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory. The old production building occupied by the office block will be vacated, reconstructed and transferred to the State Hermitage Museum with a view to display the collection there. Before the reconstruction is completed the museum will be housed in the old building but is to be provided with a separate entrance. After the agreement is finally negotiated a new department of the Hermitage Museum "The Lomonosov Porcelain Factory Museum" is to start its work on the premises of the factory, the staff of the new department being recruited from the specialists of the Hermitage and the Lomonosov Factory on a full-time basis. The primary task of the mutual work is publishing of the scientific catalogue of the collection.

It is planned to establish the Council of Management at the Museum of the Lomonosov Factory consisting of the leading Russian specialists in the field who are to work out basic guidelines for the perspective development of the collection.

The State Hermitage Museum and the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory have started work aimed at co-ordination of the mutually beneficial agreement concerning production of the artistically made copies of porcelain items from the Hermitage collection with the logo of the State Hermitage Museum and the trade mark of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory.

The participants of the conference

Exhibits of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory Museum