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List of contents
Preface; Introduction to the Hermitage; Chapter 1: The History of Scandal; Chapter 2: Opening to the World; Chapter 3: Fighting over New Art; Chapter 4: Restitution; Chapter 5: Construction and Corruption; Chapter 6: Sales and Purchases; Chapter 7: Thefts; Chapter 8: Fluctuating Attributions; Chapter 9: Political Aftertaste of Scandal; Chapter 10: The Pandemic and After; Notes; Bibliography; Acknowledgements; Index
About the author
Mikhail Piotrovsky has been Director of the State
Hermitage Museum since 1992. He is also Chairman of the Association of the
Museums of Russia and a long-serving member of the President’s Council on
Culture. An Islamic scholar, he is head of the Oriental Department of St
Petersburg University.
Geraldine Norman is a former journalist with The
Times and the Independent and the author of The Hermitage: The
Biography of a Great Museum (1997). She was briefly the Director of the
Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House (2000-2001) and subsequently founded and ran,
until 2020, the UK Friends of the Hermitage..
Summary
The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is one of the greatest
museums in the world, with a history stretching back over 300 years and vast,
wide-ranging collections of superb quality. It is also an institution which has
endured the tumultuous events of Russian history, surviving two Revolutions and
two World Wars as well as the forced sales from its collections by the State in
the 1930s. Inaccessible to Western visitors during the Soviet period, the museum
has remained something of a mystery to this day.
Now, for the first time, the longstanding Director of the
Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, and journalist Geraldine Norman lift the lid on
the scandals of different kinds (both real and invented) which have beset the
Hermitage during its fascinating history, from the era of the Museum's founder
Catherine the Great (and before her that of Peter the Great, the builder of St
Petersburg) to the present. Through the lens of scandal, the book seeks to draw
parallels between the recent problems of the Museum and earlier periods of its
rich history.
Covering restitution issues, controversial sales and
purchases, thefts, fluctuating attributions, the fight over new art, corruption
associated with the construction of new buildings, politically motivated
scandals, and the global ‘scandal’ of the Covid-19 pandemic, the book provides
unique insight into the challenges of managing a world-famous institution. It
will appeal to Russophiles, Russophobes, art lovers, museum curators and
directors, and all visitors to this extraordinary museum.
Additional text
Featured in ‘Best new art books for 2022' – Christie's
