Mikhail Piotrovsky: Museums have few competitors

There are problems in which the cultural component is greater than economics. Everything that is taking place in the world today is in essence cancel culture. Sanctions are the economic cancellation of Russia. The President has suggested that Russia is being made the scapegoat for a general economic crisis. It is convenient to put the responsibility on our country.

I have said repeatedly that the cancelling of Russian culture, of cultural ties is an attempt to compensate with Russophobia people’s futile expectations from the cancellation of their own cultures. In combination with the economic situation, a complete picture emerges.

At the Forum, the talk was about concrete aspects of the economy in the cultural sphere. In recent times they have become more or less clear. It is a given that culture is made up of a triad: fundamental culture that is for all times; the social commission – what society requires today, and society pays for, and the creative industry that makes money.

In general, art placed within a framework of good marketing might be termed the monetization of inspiration. On the one hand, it counts on an income and obtains one. On the other, the creative industries, when they are acknowledged as such, get privileges regarding taxation. In some countries, museums are considered a creative industry. There are no legal definitions for a creative industry as yet. There is room for discussion in that area. At the Forum there was discussion of the opportunities that are opening up for the creative industry.

In the case of museums, everything is straightforward. We have a competitive advantage – there are few places in the world with such collections. There is a possibility of unfair competition. With domestically produced cinema and design, the competition is fair. A niche has opened up for them that needs to be skilfully exploited – not simply relying on the assumption that now people will have to come out and watch homegrown films.

Closely related here is the concept of the cultural brand, commercial reputation. The Hermitage, for example, is a brand. When works from several museums were detained in Finland on their way back from exhibitions abroad, the senior Finnish customs official spoke at a press conference, justifying his actions a little. He was asked if there were items from the Hermitage among those detained, and he avoided answering, clearly fearing that the scandal might grow. While our partner, the Fondation Louis Vuitton, concerned about its business reputation, did everything to ensure that the exhibition was returned on time.

Favourable financial times did not do much to aid the development of national economies, but the cultural sphere made proficient use of the “fat years”. The number of historical monuments restored and museum repositories constructed is quite large, when we look around the world.

For an economy, stable development is an important matter. Not too fast, but consistent, so that people can look to the future without fear. So far that is not coming about. Here culture can play an important calming social role.

In this regard the experience of museums is useful, and that of the Hermitage in particular. Today there are three tasks: storage, a global status and a forum. Open storage is our knowhow. A global status means an active presence in a variety of places. As of now we are no longer in Amsterdam, but we are present in different places across Russia. Third and highly important is the museum as a forum. A museum has its own functions, but one of them is to serve as a place where people can mentally reflect, come together, debate. You cannot arrange a place for partisan meetings in a museum, but it can be a venue for discussions and arguments, as happens with us in the General Staff building.

Mechanisms have now appeared that make it possible to provide for the stable development of culture. I am referring to state foundations. Some of them gave an account of their activities at the Forum. The most recent is the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, which is providing many grants. There are also public non-state foundations, there are endowments – capital provided for a purpose, and grants that can be obtained through some kind of competition. Making use of them implies a certain freedom of action coupled with a high degree of responsibility. We have learnt to do that.

It all began with private foundations. They demanded strict accounting. No state bureaucrat will ask in such an exacting, pointed manner, “Why is the money needed? What are you doing with it?” The number of private foundations has declined. A niche has formed, and it is being filled. The state is assuming responsibility for the content of culture, as indeed it is obliged to do under the constitution. I have to say, the state’s responsibility for specific things is increasing. In particular, we will be seeking state guarantees of insurance for external exhibitions.

Isolation in the cultural sphere is not to our advantage, because in that sphere we are competitive. Openness provides us with training. That’s how things were previously, and it is happening now too.

Peter the Great means not only victory over the Swedes at Poltava and not only the carpenter tsar. In a showcase in the Gallery devoted to him in the Winter Palace there is a French costume of his. It was sewn in keeping with the latest Parisian fashion, but with a turn-down collar, because Peter preferred it that way.

In the halls of the Gallery, there is a portrait of the Emperor painted by an unknown Serbian artist. According to the legend, Peter presented it to some Serbian monastery. The portrait was venerated there, almost like a miracle-working icon. It was bought and brought to the Hermitage, while an exact copy was made for the monastery. By the way, on the day of the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth, they held a first-day issue ceremony in Serbia for a stamp bearing that portrait. A descendant of Savva Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, one of Peter’s close associates, travelled here for the Petrine Congress. He showed a portrait of Savva that resembled the one of Peter – a Serbian heroic type.

The Gallery tells not only about Peter, but also about his cult, which was deliberately created. Portraits of Peter’s associates are hanging there that were commissioned by Nicholas I, and things are on show that Alexander II brought back from the Netherlands.

In Peter’s turnery you can see how a machine was used to make templates, how a reproduction was made on wood and ivory. Now, in the era of 3D-printers, that is interesting to watch. Templates were used to mass-produce objects connected with important events. Instant propaganda in applied art. Peter is still relevant today.

Another example is art collecting. The borders have closed, but we managed to receive in time and open an exhibition of Florentine sculpture acquired by Russian collectors. A married couple have assembled a remarkable collection. This is not Leonardo da Vinci, the imperial Hermitage did not collect such things, but there is a growing understanding of their significance.

An exhibition of Flemish painting is running in the Menshikov Palace, again from a private collection. This is painting from Peter’s era that the Emperor enjoyed. The exhibition is popular. People are going to see it.

When talking about art collecting, it is impossible not to mention Shchukin and Morozov.

The Silver Age for us means above all Akhmatova and Gumilev, but the Silver Age is also Shchukin and Morozov – Russian people who were frequent visitors to Paris. They became a distinctive feature of Parisian life in those days and bought the works of artists. Much depended on their tastes and commissions. The first museum of modern art was Shchukin’s house in Moscow, which he allowed people to visit. In the exhibition devoted to that collector which has opened in the Manege of the Small Hermitage you can see how thoughtfully he arranged where the paintings hung. Shchukin was an amazing collector and exhibitor. It is easy to imagine stunned artists gazing at those pictures. Then they started painting their own in other ways.

We should not forget that as a result of the revolution a considerable part of our Silver Age, including Diaghilev, dancers and artists, moved to Europe. In recent years, it is becoming ever more obvious what a tremendous significance our Silver Age had for the world.

This material was published in the Sankt-Petersburgskie Vedomosti newspaper, №116 (7199) on 29 June 2022 with the headline “Museums have few competitors”

The original Russian text can be found here.