15th meeting of the International Advisory Board of the State Hermitage Museum

28-29 August, 2009 the 15th meeting of the International Advisory Board of the State Hermitage Museum took place. The meeting was dedicated to the current issues of development of the State Hermitage Museum. This year special attention was given to the future exhibitions in the East Wing of the General Staff building that is now under reconstruction.

At the Council the speakers included: A. G. Kostenevich, chief researcher of the Department of the History of Western European Fine Art, who made a presentation Exhibition of Western European Paintings in the East Wing of the General Staff building, and T. V. Rappe, Senior Assistant of the Department of Western European Applied Art, who made a report called Exhibition of Western European Decorative and Applied Arts in the East Wing of the General Staff building.

Albert Grigorevich Kostenevich spoke of plans of placing the collection of paintings and sculptures dating from 1860 and until the end of the 20th century on the fourth floor. The core of the collection will consist of the works by Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, canvases by Matisse and Picasso and by other masters of French Painting of the 20th century from the celebrated collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov. Special upper rows of lamps will be installed in the vaults to create optimal conditions for displaying the paintings.

Tamara Vladimirovna Rappe said that an exhibition The Realms of the Eagle would be again displayed in the newly restored rooms on the third floor of the General Staff building. The exhibition dedicated to the art of the middle of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century will be located on the second floor in the twenty halls overlooking Palace Square. This exhibition will allow tracing the history of the development of two styles - Historicism and Art Nouveau.

The numismatics collection will be presented in the rooms that preserved the decoration by Carlo Rossi.

On the second floor some rooms will also be given to the so-called Faberge Museum. Items from the collection of the State Hermitage Museum will be presented at this exhibition; these items were created by the masters of the renowned company. The visitors of the museum will also be able to see the drawings by its founder - Carl Faberge. It's planned to create a centre of jewelry art studies and to organise exhibitions of Contemporary Jewelry Art.

The halls of the second floor overlooking the Moyka River will be available for the open storage of Russian and Western European Decorative and Applied Art of the 19th century.

When the restoration works are finished in the General Staff building we will have an opportunity to hold exhibitions of Foreign Art of the 20th - 21st centuries.