Why does the director of the Hermitage, Piotrovsky, not allow Christians to pray in the temples of the Winter Palace? He's coming... so will permanent services be allowed in the communist-defiled Orthodox churches of the imperial winter palace? Is everything still for.

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I can't be asked just two questions: why am I wearing a scarf and what is my favorite painting.

The Hermitage is a skete. For most people, this is a place to go and hide.

We are very formal. Our exhibitions have an imperial bias not because we are so proud. We just have to keep it: there is no king, but many traditions remain. There is a king house. And we are not exactly his servants, but we help to spread the spirit of the house. The Hermitage is a palace that remembers itself in an amazing way. And everything around should be determined by the palace, its style and taste.

Culture and politics are intertwined. Only culture stands above politics. When everything in politics collapses, culture remains the bridge between people, which is the last to be blown up.

Without the exhibition at Versailles, there would have been no meeting between Putin and Macron. The new president of France would not hold a meeting without a reason. Art that unites nations always has a diplomatic function. Crises were overcome with the help of art. Recall the Soviet era: first they sent an exhibition, and then relations were restored.

When it became clear that ancient Palmyra was no more, I felt angry. It is clear that monuments and treasures could be protected.

Any Middle East war resembles a crusade. The story is known how, during the Russian-Turkish war, Catherine I collected all the jewels, gave a bribe to the Turks, they opened the corridor, and the Russians left the encirclement. You can only fight for monuments and protect them.

The museum will never become completely virtual. Now it is already full of all sorts of tents, where all the paintings of Van Gogh are shown at once. There is nothing wrong with this, except that such a format cannot be called a museum, where there is the energy of a genuine thing.

We are told: well done, you turned to contemporary art! But there is nothing new in this. Emperors bought their contemporary art. And the first exhibition of contemporary art was held in Petrograd in 1918 in the Winter Palace. Can we stand apart today?

We must not only please visitors, but also introduce them to something new. When we put the skulls and stuffed Fabre in the Snyders hall, people began to pay attention to Snyders, although they usually pass by him quickly.

There was no great excitement in connection with the exhibition of Jan Fabre. There were a little more visitors, but it was incomparable with Serov or Aivazovsky, who increased the attendance of the Tretyakov Gallery many times over. The task was to ensure that Fabre was seen by those who would never have come to see him.

Trust is not democracy. This is a sign of strength.

In difficult conditions, as you know, poets write good poems, artists write good pictures, and when everything is free, nothing happens.

I fully accept the current regime. I would like to take no positions, but sometimes it needs to be done and helped. For me, being elected to the State Duma in 2011 was about the same as writing a letter to the patriarch about St. Isaac's Cathedral. There are situations when you have to step out of line and say something.

It would be much worse if no one cared about your opinion.

Many processes that are taking place in society and the world today can be explained by one expression: Back in USSR. The title of the Beatles song is just right. Especially since it parodies Chuck Berry's Back in USA. And here, in St. Petersburg, we try to live like in the Simon & Garfunkel song Bridge over Troubled Water (Bridge over stormy waters. - Esquire).

Petersburg must be loved at least so that it does not drown. It breaks down very easily. The city is built on a swamp, the city has prophecies, the city is hated. He can go under water at any moment.

I have a rich and varied life. I live in many worlds and continue to be an orientalist. I have no time to regret that something went wrong. Variety creates perfection.

The museum is a powerful lever of purification.

Mikhail Piotrovsky in the foyer of the Hermitage Theatre.

The word "Hermitage" now sounds fashionable. In the summer, the oldest Russian museum thundered with an exhibition by Annie Leibovitz. Then I went to the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art. Moreover, he brought not some Petersburg pride like Novikov's neo-academicists, but the archives of the Moscow conceptualist Prigov. And now he has opened and shows until mid-January in his Greco-Roman halls an exhibition of abstract sculptures by the living British muralist Anthony Gormley. Has the Dickensian "antiquities shop" fallen, where for generations people went to Catherine's tapestries, Rembrandt's "Danae" and Matisse's "Dance"? And where does the director, Mikhail Piotrovsky, look?

The all-powerful owner of the Winter Palace and Palace Square, who forbids skating rinks and allows Madonna's concerts, the "scarf man", Mikhail Piotrovsky has long been more than a museum director. And now he contemplates the domes and spiers of the Peter and Paul Fortress through the window of his reception room: a stone face, one hand clenched into a fist, an office folder in the other, rectangular glasses in a metal frame, a dark blue suit with a matching tie ... Piotrovsky then whether the colossus - Peter the Great performed by Stalin's favorite artist Simonov, or the "red director" of the era of Chernomyrdin.

Mikhail Borisovich, what needs to be done to make you take off your scarf?

Should I take off my scarf? Please! - Piotrovsky immediately pulls off his legendary black scarf.

Can you knit like a youth? Well, a collar?

The photographer takes an almost historic shot. And I am quoting to Piotrovsky the answer of the Hermitage press service to my letter, whether their director will agree to change clothes for the sake of shooting for VOGUE: “No, he is more than a serious person.” The serious man begins to smile.

My stylist is my wife, she offers, I agree if I like it. Here is the scarf. Everyone is constantly wondering why I wear it. And I just like it. As I put it on fifteen years ago, I still don’t take it off. When I leave the house, I always wear a scarf. Let's go to the halls, only I need to lock the door.

And Piotrovsky naturally takes a bunch of keys out of his pocket, pushes us out of the waiting room, locks himself inside and appears from the back door around the corner.

His assistants have a day off (we meet on Sunday), and Piotrovsky, who turns sixty-seven in December, stopped by to speak to the students. The Hermitage came up with a new program for young people - with lectures, master classes and competitions like "Guess which masterpiece is in which room."

There is still time before the lecture, and the director is taking me to show the Gormley exhibition. Through the hall of Augustus, where, next to the busts of Tiberius and Nero, the avant-garde of the grandmother of modern art, Louise Bourgeois, who died last year, is on permanent display, to the hall of Dionysus and the Roman courtyard.

In the first, the Olympian gods were removed from the pedestals and placed directly on the floor. And seventeen cast-iron Gormley sculptures were installed in a nearby courtyard. Why such sacrifices?

The viewer passes to the abstract, rough bodies of Gormley's people through a series of perfect bodies of the gods - but equal to him, the viewer. He's used to them looking down on him.

But are you too late to start? And why with Bourgeois, Gormley - honored veterans ...

Wrong question. The Hermitage has always dealt with contemporary art. What is the collection of Catherine II, with which the museum began? She also collected art contemporary to her - she ordered Chardin, Houdon, Reynolds. Our principle is art is one and there have been no revolutions in it.

In his reception room overlooking the Neva.

In 1930-1940, the Hermitage was given part of the nationalized private collections of Shchukin and Morozov, collectors of the then actual Impressionist artists. This is how Van Gogh, Cezanne, Kandinsky appeared in the museum. In 1956, a retrospective of the still-living Pablo Picasso was held and the third floor was opened, especially for European art of the 20th century. In 1967, already under Boris Piotrovsky, the father of the current director - a prodigy of Stalinist archeology, academician, Hero of Socialist Labor, who headed the Hermitage for twenty-six years - Lydia Delektorskaya donated a collection of works by Matisse to the museum. Eleven years later, it was here that Andy Warhol's first exhibition in Russia was held.

But the real window to Europe and America was opened by Piotrovsky II. In 2000, the Hermitage hosted the first Warhol retrospective and showed the latest masterpieces of Jackson Pollock. In 2004, the first exhibitions in Russia of the most expensive - the Russian underground artist, Muscovite émigré Kabakov and the American abstract artist Rothko - were held here. Moscow will only see them in the late 2000s at Garage.

From Kabakov's "Toilet in the Corner" and "Loneliness in the Closet", which he presented to the Hermitage, we began the formation of a collection of contemporary art, - recalls Piotrovsky.

Since then, Bourgeois and Rauschenberg, Polke and Soulages have appeared in the collection of the Hermitage 20/21 project, within the framework of which contemporary art exhibitions are held. But of the Russians, only Tselkov and Novikov. But it started off well. In 1964, they arranged an intra-museum exhibition of the works of the team, including the disgraced Mikhail Shemyakin, who was then working as a rigger.

That exhibition led to political repressions, the resignation of the director Artamonov... For a whole year they got out. It was a tragedy for the museum and for our art in general. Then it became clear how dangerous shocking is for the museum. And that the Hermitage needs its own way in dealing with contemporary art.

While we are walking around the museum, like Sokurov's "Russian Ark" - without a break, I tell Piotrovsky that for me he is, first of all, an Arabist scholar, cited extremely abundantly in my institute diploma.

I sometimes joke that an orientalist is my profession, and working here is a hobby: there can be no others with such employment. By the way, for almost eighty years the Hermitage has been headed by either orientalists or archaeologists. I'm an oriental archaeologist. An orientalist is an obligation to live in several worlds, an archaeologist is an understanding of where to spend money and how to account for them: you live on expeditions. I was recently asked: “Why is your Islamic art department in the worst possible state?” This is true. It is inconvenient to put your interests in the foreground.

He recalls his internship in Nasser's Egypt, how he taught history to the hierarchs of the socialist South Yemen in the seventies - and says that the current revolutions in the East are a personal pain for him. And then he moves on to contemporary art: it has a future, and interesting, Piotrovsky is convinced, just in the Muslim East.

Islam does not welcome the image of people, but abstractions - yes. In Dubai or Baghdad it is easier to create a contemporary art museum and it will flourish.

On the Soviet stairs of the Hermitage.

With this and his biography - born in Yerevan, great-great-great-grandfather - a Catholic, father - Russian with Polish roots, "son-in-law of the Armenian people", who spent half his life in the Caucasus, exploring the state of Urartu, mother - Armenian - Piotrovsky explains the universality of his and his Hermitage.

It's not a museum of art, it's a museum of world culture.

It began for Piotrovsky like this, at the age of four - not with Danae, but with military oriental drums in the Arsenal and parquet mosaics.

Isn't it a shame that your son is unlikely to replace you at your post? By the way, have you already decided for yourself when to retire?

Such things are decided by fate, and such questions are indecent. In 2014, the Hermitage - two hundred and fifty. In particular, a museum of the 19th and 20th centuries will open in the Eastern Wing of the General Staff building, and there will also be contemporary art - demonstrations of video art and performances. And my son, an economist, is engaged in publishing business. He also publishes books about the Hermitage. My daughter lives in Moscow, she is a banker, I consult her on all economic matters. Maybe the children will continue to participate in the life of the museum. But the Hermitage is not only the Piotrovsky family. It is customary for us to work with families - for employees, caretakers.

Since the Hermitage and family and home, what is your favorite place here now?

I'll tell you now, and then everyone will go and ask me to take pictures there. Once I went to Japan and mentioned somewhere that I like black beer. So then in all the cities where we were, the Japanese ran looking for black beer for me. And I can't drink that much. Now I'm walking - admiring the Jordan stairs. We have just restored it.

Finally we reach the Hermitage Theatre. The seven-row amphitheater is full of schoolchildren and students. "Sit in the orchestra pit," Piotrovsky suggests. From there you cannot see how he speaks, and therefore you especially listen to his words. For example, that there are no curators in the museum, these “always the smartest people in the museum”, but there are research assistants. That it was not the Hermitage that had the honor of participating in the last Venice Biennale, but that the Biennale was hosting the Hermitage. Piotrovsky is again a pillar to match the one of Alexandria.

Are you serious about the honor of hosting the Hermitage for the Biennale? I ask as we sit down in his study under a portrait of his father.

Well, this is to imbue the youth, - the director smiles. - The Hermitage at the Biennale is a different genre for us, we acted arrogantly and self-confidently. I generally like to take risks, to shock. A year ago we did an exhibition of Picasso - we have never had such a large one in the front halls. Colleagues from the Parisian museum, when they saw all these golden columns, were dumbfounded, tried to cover them. But I was against it. We do everything in such a way that, in any case, all things we have are either completely invented by us, or with a sensitive Hermitage accent.

"Apollo" by the main St. Petersburg artist of the 1990s, the founder of neo-academism Timur Novikov, was exhibited at the General Staff Building - overlooking the Alexandrian Column, Montferrand's paraphrase of Trajan's Roman column. When they decided to exhibit photography in 1998, they started (against the disapproval of critics who believed that photography did not belong next to painting) with an Irving Penn retrospective. Status portrait painter Picasso, Stravinsky, Duchamp, the father of modern fashion photography, the author of American VOGUE covers of the fifties and highly artistic still lifes - that is, a creator close to what is already hanging in the Hermitage. And when black-and-white Polaroids of nude models, orchids and stars of the underground classic Robert Mapplethorpe were later brought in, they were hung interspersed with engravings by Dutch mannerists of the 16th century. Those who saw that exhibition claim that they understood where the cult of perfect bodily beauty came from, which reigned in fashion and gloss in the eighties.

Why not make a purely fashionable exhibition of costumes? Here in the Pushkin Museum they showed Chanel, Dior. And you had the last one in 1987 - a retrospective of Yves Saint Laurent...

Wrong question again! We were pioneers in this too. It's just that here, just like with contemporary art, we need our Hermitage stories. In the 2000s, we exhibited the works of Lamanova, Charles Worth: they sewed for empresses - this is our history. Or like the Annie Leibovitz photo exhibition. It consisted of two parts: one - the legendary "ceremonial" portraits of stars for Vanity Fair and VOGUE. The second is pictures of the newborn children of Leibovitz, father, life partner of Susan Sontag, including during her battle with cancer. And we placed these, purely personal photographs in the study-bedroom of Alexander II: he was brought to this room after the assassination attempt, he died in it, and everything is preserved here in that form. These walls have seen birth, growth, life and death. Where else can this be done, except for the Hermitage?

The Hermitage is celebrating its 300th anniversary. 240 years - the museum itself and 60 years - its director Mikhail Piotrovsky. In anticipation of these events, Mikhail Piotrovsky kindly agreed to give an interview to FeldPochta.

What are the duties of the director of the Hermitage? What is the range of issues that you deal with?

The widest. From economic to deeply philosophical. It is necessary to deal with management and reconstruction, current repairs and capital repairs. There are, of course, deputies, but the ideology of everything must be kept in hand. It is necessary to provide storage, protection, a security system, to manage science and research. Organize temporary and permanent exhibitions. It is necessary to engage in a struggle with various government agencies in the interests of the Hermitage, to push through the Duma the correct, necessary laws. It is necessary to deal with the prestige and status of the Hermitage, with what is called "PR". Well, and most importantly, to fight for the allocation of money for the museum from budgetary and non-budgetary sources.

Does the Hermitage have patrons, permanent sponsors?

Of course I have. But the main task of maintaining the museum lies with society as a whole. The main share of the expenditures still falls on the state. And there are patrons - both ours and foreign ones. About 1/8 of the budget is funds from patrons.

Why do you have to fight the Duma - in matters of culture, everyone seems to be patriots?

We have to fight everyone because everyone wants to save money and we need a lot of money. Communication with deputies can be called a struggle, or it can be called work. Right now the Duma is preparing the question of new legal forms - state and semi-state cultural institutions. We are preparing a number of proposals so that our culture is not killed, but, on the contrary, is helped to develop. And that the interests of museums be taken into account. Concrete proposals have been sent to the Duma and the ministry.

And what are these proposals?

The main ones are as follows: in the event that these laws provide for relative freedom and shift a significant part of the financial responsibility to institutions, then they should, accordingly, reduce state control. After all, these laws boil down to the fact that the state should give a little - everyone should earn the cultural institutions themselves. But at the same time, the petty, daily control of the state sharply increases, which, of course, leads to a complete catastrophe, because if you are given freedom, then there must be freedom to dispose of the money you earn. Of course, under control, but only according to the results.

How do you make money?

We call it not earning, but generating. We receive money from exhibitions, more and more from patrons and from various foundations. But it's not about how much we can earn. We should not be at the head of the fragility of making money in any way. It is not known what this may lead to.

What's wrong with making money by all means to promote art?

In general, there is nothing wrong with this, but there are ways to earn money that are unacceptable for us. You can't organize discos in the halls of the Hermitage, although you can collect so much money for one disco...

What were the proposals?

We have all sorts of suggestions. Well, something like that. Everyone wants some kind of balls, receptions to arrange in the Hermitage.

Weddings, maybe?

Anyway, let's not talk. But this cannot be done, although it could bring big money. There are limits.

Maybe you don't have to be so scrupulous? Well, how will the wedding interfere with the Hermitage?

It just gets in the way. There is a certain museum regime that must not be violated - security, air humidity. But the most important thing is the atmosphere of the museum. Even a reception in honor of a museum event, the opening of an exhibition - maybe not in the museum halls, but in other rooms.

That is, non-museum events can still be held in the Hermitage?

Yes, but only those organized by the Hermitage itself - the opening of an exhibition, the presentation of large projects. Right now we will have an evening-meeting of the Hermitage Museum - people who help the museum financially throughout the year, surround us with all sorts of care. In honor of them, on December 8, there will be a reception at the Winter Palace.

And how many friends does the Hermitage have?

I think there will be 250-300 people. And we do not seek to invite the so-called celebrities. Only those people who give money.

Will it be like a ball?

First we will gather at the theater for a small concert. Then words of gratitude, medals, diplomas. Then we will walk around the museum, show different exhibitions, new discoveries. Then there will be a reception at the Jordan Gallery, in a special place where we have big receptions two or three times a year. Once a year is a special reception to raise money for the next project. It is usually timed to coincide with the ball of the Mariinsky Theatre. The other one will be for friends now. Well, the third, on a special occasion, happens during the year.

What will be on the buffet?

As usual - food, refreshments. But not where the pictures are.

How much does the maintenance of the Hermitage cost the state per year?

Every year is different. This year, maintenance and construction (we are doing a lot of capital construction) cost $40 million. Before that, all the years it was less. Of this amount, 60 percent is provided by the state, the rest is sponsors and our earnings from generating funds.

By the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, many monuments and museums, as they say, only the facade was tinted. What is the technical condition of the Hermitage?

Firstly, we paint facades every year, and it costs one million dollars. Our facades are large, it is also roofs. Facade is a very important thing. Because a person, for example, can be very good, but if he changes his shirt every two weeks and does not clean his shoes, then his good (tm) is of little use. (Laughs.) The same is true of our building. Our plumbing and fire systems have been completely reconstructed and replaced. Powerful work is underway with the involvement of international companies to waterproof the walls and basements of the Hermitage. We are working on stabilizing the temperature in the building - we are setting up thermal centers in different parts of the museum. I would say that the technical condition is very decent.

Why don't you say it's good?

You can never say what is good, because, as you say, something will immediately collapse. The work was never interrupted - there were five years when there was no money at all. Now we do something every year. This year we made a new illumination of the courtyard of the Winter Palace, which has now become the entrance to the Hermitage. We will also show patrons the restored Van Dyck Hall, the Picket Hall. All of them will be put into operation by the coming days of the Hermitage.

In theory, can the Hermitage bring profit to the state?

We preserve the cultural heritage of the nation. The most important thing is. This is more important than anything else. This is what makes us different from animals. The duty of the state is to give money to ensure that this is preserved. It is possible to say that a museum can earn money by itself, but one cannot say that a museum can bring income to the state. You can't even put the question like that - say that museums earn money for the state. For this, it collects taxes from us in order to preserve cultural values, to contain what is important for the nation. Yes, now there is such a tendency to expect profit from any state property. We can earn money, but it is not our responsibility. Moreover, we should not give anything to the state. Let the oligarchs share, but we are not supposed to.

Does Vladimir Vladimirovich support you in this matter?

Certainly.

Is it hard to resist the bureaucracy without the support of the first persons of the state?

Well, how does the President support? He will come to the Hermitage with his guest. They will talk there, take a picture here. There is a picture - everything is as it should be. After that, it is already easier to talk - it is not necessary that he himself make a phone call. We use his kind attitude to culture - it is. He will say something, and we try to develop further.

What kind of new acquisitions does the Hermitage accept? What has been sensational in recent years?

The most sensational is, of course, Malevich's Black Square, which Potanin bought. Literally today I got a call that one of the patrons managed to buy Chernetsov's watercolor painting of our Malachite Hall inexpensively at an auction. For us, this is a priceless gift.

What are the problems with the protection of the Hermitage?

Before the era of terrorism, the main enemy was, as elsewhere, theft. These thieves are always inventing something. Here I am sitting at my desk, and in front of me are three monitors that record how people enter the Hermitage, how they go through all these metal detectors, checks and searches. Unfortunately, this had to be done. We are guarded by both the police and our own security service. Patrols and caretakers walk through the halls. More and more money is spent on technical security, let me not disclose the details.

Does all this guarantee safety?

So far, for several years, it seems that God has been merciful from major troubles.

How are your relations with the new governor - Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko?

Great relationship. She knows the Hermitage well from the time of her previous work in St. Petersburg, she shows every kind of concern, although formally we have a federal level and we do not ask for money from the city.

Doesn't excessive intelligence bother you for doing business in our rude country? - This should not be asked of me, but, in my opinion, it does not interfere. Moreover, my intelligence, I would say, is moderate. I'm not only sitting with books. He traveled a lot around the world, on archaeological expeditions. I do not feel uncomfortable in our rough country, although, of course, sometimes they push each other with their shoulders.

Does it happen that they plot?

From time to time, some stupid fuss begins: supposedly the paintings were changed, something was taken out there. There were some idiotic parliamentary inquiries, and the prosecutor's office has to check all this ... The intrigues are built not so much by officials, but by various spiteful critics. Some want to show that everything is bad in Russia, others don't like something in the Hermitage. Someone else has a personal grudge. But it is all over the world. And with us, and not only with regard to the Hermitage.

Do you have a "sweet" place if they try to sit up?

Not so much me - it's rather against the team that works in the Hermitage. And the place is not so "sweet". There is a lot of work, I sleep with two phones, because everything happens at night. People also work for us for not very big money, but, as a rule, they don’t go anywhere.

They say that you are looking for funds to pay extra to museum workers?

We pay about three times more than museum salaries from extrabudgetary funds. We give allowances to those who are active, and, of course, we strive not to fire museum people. This cannot be done, because then they generally end up on the street.

We are proud of our cultural heritage - but how do you like the talk of recent years about the need to return valuables seized during the last war? What is your position? Why is it that the British, say, Museum does not pay any further attention to such reproaches, while in Russia all this is being discussed?

We are very different from all the British museums and things like that. We, unfortunately, did not rob not in Egypt, not in Mesopotamia. (Laughs) Most of our collection was purchased for money by Russian tsars and aristocracy, which is quite legal. Another part of the collection - things collected throughout the USSR. Very often, cries of robbery are heard from those who themselves did not appreciate what they had. The same marbles of the Parthenon. They were sold to the British, and now they say - give them back. In general, the museum is a special organism. Some kind of Greek vase next to a Scythian necklace, with paintings by Matisse and Rembrandt - all together it becomes a single organism and a cultural monument. Things in the museum become famous, people specially come to look at them and learn world culture through them. We actively advocate that all this talk about the loot should concern only the post-war period, when international laws were already in force. Now a lot of it is being smuggled out illegally. And this must be stopped. And what was before, let it remain and lie in museums. And there is no need to take anything away - neither from the Metropolitan, nor from the Louvre. And there is nothing to take away from the Hermitage - everything is legal.

What event marks the 240th anniversary of the Hermitage?

In 1764, Catherine the Great purchased the first large collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Katkowski, who was collecting them for Frederick the Great. At that time there was a seven-year war, Frederick the Great was at war with Russia, found himself without money, and he could not buy this collection. Catherine bought the collection and brought it here to the Hermitage, although there is no exact date when it was. Therefore, for many years the Hermitage did not have a birthday - that's just the date of 240 years. Then we nevertheless decided that it was necessary to find the birthday of the Hermitage and celebrate it on St. Catherine's Day - December 7th. Therefore, for 6 years now we have been celebrating the Hermitage's birthday in December. And the 9th is Saint George's Day. This is the day of the St. George Hall of the Winter Palace. In these three days, we report to ourselves, to our friends. We arrange all sorts of exhibitions.

I do not celebrate my birthday at the Hermitage. This is a separate conversation...

How is it, 60 years is still an anniversary ...

I am begging you! Anniversary is fifty, and sixty is so. I will never manage. I work - I am at work, therefore, maybe, in the intervals between ceremonies, reports, press conferences, friends will come, well, maybe a glass or two ... But nothing will happen.

Allow yourself a glass or two?

On special holidays, yes. Whiskey, vodka. I don't drink cognac.

They say that the cultural level of our contemporaries has fallen, is that true? What do you see from the visitors of the Hermitage?

It must be divided into parts. For example, everyone is very fond of saying that the cultural level of students and youth has fallen. This is absolutely wrong. We have a wonderful student club, which we recently created, there are special lectures for students - you should have seen how many people rush into the lecture halls, especially when we give lectures on contemporary art. That is, the youth is definitely not degraded. Students, children and pensioners go to the Hermitage free of charge. These free categories make up about a million of our two and a half million visitors. This is a lot, which means that at least half of the citizens really strive for art and enjoy it. Somewhere in the middle there remains some kind of mass, whose level has not really fallen, but which is fond of any mass art that has become available, but ... this too will pass. I would not complain that our cultural level has fallen. Maybe just too many temptations - it distracts from high culture. But we in the museum do not complain at all about the lack of visitors - they go, go, go.

Do you go to non-high culture events yourself?

We have a theater in the Hermitage. Therefore, in the evening we always have either a ballet or a musical concert literally "at home" you can watch. But, unfortunately, this rarely works out for me - I also work in the evening ...

When are you at home?

At ten or eleven, but this does not mean that you can rest. I came, so I have to prepare for the next day, write something. I teach at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Leningrad State University, I read the history of Muslim art, I teach at the Faculty of Philosophy - there I head the department of museology - and I teach at the European University in St. Petersburg, now there is such - I am the chairman of the board of trustees. I write books - I also do my specialty.

When talking about you, your employees proudly said that you knew six languages. And you can even think in Arabic...

I really know many languages, and most importantly, I am an orientalist by profession and have been accustomed all my life to speak several languages ​​every day, especially since I lived in the Middle East for a long time. I do speak different languages ​​and this impresses the guests. When distinguished guests arrive, I drive them myself, without an interpreter.

You are an amazing, unique person!

This is not unique - this is my profession.

Probably, not every curator of the largest museum abroad can speak at least Russian?

In Russian - yes, in Russian, almost no one. Only the director of the Metropolitan Museum speaks a little Russian.

Each director must speak several languages. Thank God, I got it thanks to education, and so - everyone should strive.

You have been in this post for 15 years. Who appointed you?

Government of the Russian Federation. Gaidar was prime minister and Yeltsin was president. Sobchak was the mayor of the city. Putin was the deputy mayor. Make assumptions.

That's the point, it turns out!

Yes, we really knew the President's family very well. And they really worked closely together. These were the years when everything was built in a new way in St. Petersburg.

Petersburgers believe that Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia. And Muscovites believe that Moscow is the cultural and political capital of Russia. So Moscow or Petersburg?

In general, to be honest, with all my love for St. Petersburg, I think that we have one capital - Moscow, and the cultural capital is also Moscow. Petersburg is the cultural capital of Europe and the world. Like this. In fact, this is a ridiculous argument. Petersburg is the greatest city, which is the world's cultural center. On the other hand, St. Petersburg must constantly defend this position. The most important thing is not to say or boast that we are so wonderful, that's all. Every year we must defend this high title of the world's largest cultural center. We must make exhibitions of the highest level, so that every time people in the world hear the word "Petersburg" they don't just say: "Ah, St. Petersburg is a beautiful city!", but understand what it is about. It used to be like this: "Oh, yes, we know - you have an amazing museum, but they say you have all sorts of economic problems and it's hard in the country." For 6 years now, the conversation has been different: "Very nice, listen, you have an amazing website, the best in the world. Where, how did you manage to make it and how did you manage to persuade AIBM?" And we really persuaded AIB- uh invest a few million dollars to make our website so good. This is how you need to do something every time so that people admire something new.

How do you feel about the talk about moving the capital of Russia to St. Petersburg?

For God's sake! I thank Lenin for moving the capital from St. Petersburg to Moscow, because if the capital had remained here, everything would have been like in Moscow for a long time. There would be not just compacted buildings, as it is now, but what the hell kind of houses would stand. Moscow, after all, withstood it. The Kremlin withstood the onset of new construction. Petersburg would have been worse. No transfer is needed. Petersburg has the necessary set of capital functions. There may be some federal agencies here. It is absolutely not necessary to bring the Ministry of Culture here, but to develop the cultural institutions of St. Petersburg, to give them more autonomy is wonderful. We have the Maritime Register, the heraldic service, which have existed in St. Petersburg for centuries, and they can be developed, but something like that is transferred from Moscow, starting to move back and forth, lifting people from their place - I think it is not necessary.

What did you do before the Hermitage?

I worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies, at the Academy of Sciences. He was engaged in pure science - oriental studies, was the head of a large expedition in Yemen. Worked here and there for many years. Doctor of historical sciences, wrote books on history.

Tell us more about how you met Putin.

It's hard to even remember. The government was just being created then, my wife worked for him in the committee on foreign relations, then this committee was just being created. We met somewhere in Smolny. Then one of the meetings was when the President of Finland came to visit - we had such an agreement that he walks around the Hermitage, we go to the library, we talk about various "Hermitage" topics, then Vladimir Vladimirovich comes - and they negotiate here, we have. I remember well - then it all turned out beautifully, elegantly and for the benefit of everyone. The situation in the Hermitage always helps our side to negotiate.

But still, it is interesting to what extent the President takes part in the affairs of the Hermitage?

I already said - he has the style that makes it possible to use his good attitude, nothing more. I don't use telephone rights.

Do you have his, how to say, mobile phone?

Of course not.

Mikhail Borisovich, your corporate identity is beautiful scarves. Do you collect them? How do you have so many?

I already said - I don’t have scarves, but a scarf. A scarf is not a scarf. Besides, where from is a question that journalists are not allowed to ask. I buy them, if you like, they give them to me. The best ones are the ones I choose for myself.

Have you created this image for yourself?

Well, I like to wear a scarf. It somehow protects from the whole world...

Some express the idea that the Hermitage works very little, closes early.

You see, the Hermitage works as long as it can, because two thousand people cannot work in two or three shifts. We work all day, six days a week. In addition, there are free days once a month. If we could afford to burn more electricity and hire even more people, maybe we would work longer... Those who live in St. Petersburg buy subscriptions, there are special Hermitage lecture halls when they walk around the empty museum in groups. So there are special programs, and we will do more of them.

Are you going to modernize the museum? Computers, musical films next to pictures...

Modernity is moderate. There are no problems with computers either - we are one of the most advanced users in the field of information technology. But we don’t do too much: we still have amazing architecture and paintings - it all complements each other and interferes with each other. We are introducing any new technology carefully, more as information technology. There are guide screens. There is concert music, its own orchestra, its own theater. There are music festivals in the courtyard of the Winter Palace, on the square. The performance is not very modern, more synthetic. Special technologies will be applied in the restored building of the General Staff - there will be art of the twentieth century, there will be all sorts of frills.

The State Hermitage is celebrating two anniversaries this year: the 250th anniversary of the museum and the 70th anniversary of its director Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky. Under his leadership, the world-famous museum has been operating for 22 years.

However, Piotrovsky is known not only as the head of the museum, but also as a public figure. His opinion is always listened to, he is able to influence the adoption of any decisions relating to the life of the city. Over the years of his active work, Mikhail Borisovich gave dozens of interviews. On the birthday of the director of the Hermitage, the site collected his statements about literature, art and the legendary scarf, which can always be seen thrown over the shoulders of an oriental historian.

About interest in art

Our task is to teach a person to understand art. The understanding of beauty is formed from childhood. That is why we welcome both children and students who are ready to spend a lot of time in the museum. This is important because humans (as we have seen) have lost the ability to debate. They seek to impose their own opinion and reject someone else's. Because of this, the colorful world becomes black and white, and society requires people with a complex perception of life. I'm not just talking about art: it's a condition for our survival in the 21st century. I am convinced that when people do not see the difficulties, the rockets begin to fall. (Hermitage website)

About efficiency

Learn to see the beauty in the little things. We are used to thinking globally, everyone dreams of earning a million, they don’t agree to anything less, that’s why they sit on the stove and do nothing. This is a true national tragedy! (Results .ru)

About alternative and erotica

It is necessary to give an alternative in the form of good and interesting products. Then nobody will be interested in nonsense. Nobody has been watching pornography for a long time, because it gets boring. But beautiful erotica is loved and watched by everyone. (Interview Magazine)

Mikhail Piotrovsky: "Our task is to teach a person to understand art." Photo: www.globallookpress.com

About the imperial state

In the empire, the peoples, on the one hand, are bad, and on the other, good. They are involved in its great tasks and great fame. Let's not forget that the empire is always proud of the fact that it consists of many peoples and is proud of its real-life cultural diversity. The Louvre, the Hermitage, the British Museum were born by empires and are happy to collect things and objects of art from different civilizations and cultures. The Empire knows how to admire all this. And it is through the imperial museums that people often master "their" culture and understand "their" civilization. The clarity of imperial principles - freedom of faith, language, culture to some extent, and then - the power of the emperor kept the world. (RG.ru)

About the crisis

In a crisis, everyone starts going to the museum, the number of visitors increases dramatically. And so it is everywhere in the world. You can't buy a new car, but you can often go to the museum, enjoy it. They go and go. Either there is nowhere to go, or they are looking for a reason for optimism. (Forbes.ru)

About Literature

I think that the Strugatsky brothers were the best writers of our era, our youth, and in general, all Russian literature then came out of science fiction, because everyone writes famous writers of today, they write science fiction, but only it is so, less interesting than what they wrote Strugatsky. It was both high literature and fascinating literature. (Echo of Moscow)

About the legendary scarf

My wife believes that the scarf came from my predilection for the Bedouin, as if the overalls of the Arabist. I take it off only when they give me orders. And there was another case, at the opening of the session of the British Parliament, where the Queen is. A wife with a scarf is allowed, but not for me. Their vaunted democracy falls short of ours. (Tatler Magazine)

Mikhail Piotrovsky: “During the crisis, everyone starts going to the museum, the number of visitors increases dramatically. And so it is everywhere in the world.” Photo: www.globallookpress.com

About the origins of management

Archeology is the discipline that combined management, fundraising, science, and cunning financial reporting in Soviet times. So, with my archaeological experience, it is easier for me to get used to the market, which, for all that, should still be regulated. How? Yes, probably a conscience. (Teacher's newspaper)

About provocations

Provocation, conflict teach to think. And feel. If nothing touched you, there will be no penetration, no connection with art. The museum should teach you to think and make you argue. Avant-garde art was born out of conflict. (News time)

About Art Appreciation

Since a thing is in a museum, it means art. How to deal with art and even what is extremist and what is non-extremist, what is indecent and what is decent - only museums are the final judges here. (AiF)

About Authenticity

People queue for hours at the Hermitage, although any picture can be perfectly viewed on a computer screen or in a book. But in the museum, everyone understands that they see a genuine thing, and this is a special impression. It is very necessary for people in today's world, where you do not know what and how to believe. (IA Rosbalt)

Mikhail Piotrovsky: "Provocation, conflict teaches to think." Photo: www.globallookpress.com

About urban space

The most terrible changes in the city are not even related to architecture. It's a huge amount of cars that are polluting the city. These "cockroaches" that are everywhere and because of which the city is not visible. Sometimes on some day off they are not there, and suddenly you see what beauty is around! (Evening Petersburg)

About tourism

Tourism is generally a very corrupting thing, including for the state. We know dozens of countries, including Egypt, trying to live on the service of visiting foreigners. In this regard, I even like the way Iraq has acted. Monuments, ancient cities were restored there, cultural heritage was preserved, but first of all for its citizens. (Expert North-West)

About icons

An icon in a museum is a work of a talented author, while in a church it is an object and method of worship: there is no time to delve into the nuances and admire the work of the master. The Hermitage, like the Tretyakov Gallery, has thousands of icons. And with each, I assure you, you can make a full copy, and then consecrate it and pray. (AiF)

About public opinion

I am a scientist, and therefore I am skeptical about all kinds of public opinion polls. And I do not believe in the reliability of statistical calculations absolutely. The broad masses, if you work with them correctly, will say what is expected of them. (

Former Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoy (right)
and current director of the State Hermitage Museum
Mikhail Piotrovsky

User comment

Online http://www.baltinfo.ru/2013/01/16/V...rmitazhe-330300 :

It has long been known that in the bowels of the State Hermitage Museum, subordinate to the Ministry of Culture of Russia, in the deep underground there is a community of Orthodox Christians, as in the days of the persecutor of Christians, the sadistic Roman emperor Nero, who, on legal grounds - by decree of the President of Russia - demands to be released from "worldly exhibitions" temples of the official residence of the Emperors of Russia (homes of the heads of the Russian state - emperors and empresses) - the Winter Palace. Christians urgently ask to fulfill the Decrees of the President on the return of the objects of Christian worship to the Russian Orthodox Church. Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky does not pay attention to the legitimate demands of the Orthodox, he does not want to comply with the Decrees of the President of Russia.

Why?
As a former hereditary atheist communist?
Or for some other reason?
Or citizen Piotrovsky M.B., who has ascended “very high”, has no time to pay attention to the “standing below” Orthodox Petersburgers, for he (already or still?) is the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, full member of the Academy of Arts, full member of the Academy of Humanities, Head of the Department of Museum Affairs and Monument Protection, Professor of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University, Professor of the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University, Head of the Department of History of the Ancient East of the Oriental Faculty of St. Petersburg University, Dean of the Oriental Faculty Petersburg University, Chairman of the Union of Museums of Russia, member of the International Council of Museums, member of the Presidium of the Russian Committee of UNESCO, laureate of the Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art, and so on and so forth and so on ...
But for the time being, he, M.B. Piotrovsky, is not yet a museum emperor! more and more posts...
Is it possible that the former atheist communist comrade, and now Mr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, is so brilliant that while officially in the responsible state service of the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, he can simultaneously perform responsible work in other positions - dozens of times more, than the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin himself?
Does the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Rostislavovich Medinsky know that one of the museum directors subordinate to him, wearing his invariable scarf around his neck and personifying the ideological trend of “elegant scarfism with short lean Caucasian legs” in Russian political thought, can simultaneously, in addition to the general directorate in the State Hermitage Museum, to perform so many other functions and memberships?
It is high time for the famous Russian statesman, chief sanitary doctor of Russia, Gennady Grigoryevich Onishchenko, to check why Mr. Piotrovsky does not protect his health, scrupulously performing so many important duties at the same time. Surely this violates the Labor Code of the Russian Federation ...
Doesn't Mikhail Borisovich as the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, being an "editor" and "compiler", the author of "prefaces" and "afterwords", not receive any money?
Perhaps he passes them on to pensioners - caretakers of the halls, junior researchers and employees of the Hermitage, who receive a meager salary? Give them a list of those blessed!
But why is this happening?
Is he a very rich man?
The fiftieth anniversary of the reign (1964-2014) of the “Piotrovsky House” in the State Hermitage Museum is just around the corner, about which the doctoral cantor has written a special book, The Hermitage. Piotrovskie” (St. Petersburg, 2004, 170 pp.), timed to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the removal from the post of Director of the Hermitage in 1964, the outstanding archaeologist Mikhail Illarionovich Artamonov (1898-1972).
Artamonov's resignation took place “thanks to” the exhibition activities of the notorious Shemyakin Mishka, who is now abroad, a provocateur from art (that was his name in Saigon).
As is known, professor and academician Piotrovsky was not involved in the death of Larisa Zavadskaya, who robbed the funds of the State Hermitage Museum (this was proved by the court).
He, being the general director of the State Hermitage Museum, is not guilty of the death of the thief Larisa Zavadskaya at the working museum post!
A thief or thieves stole exhibits worth hundreds of millions of rubles from the funds of the State Hermitage Museum.
Piotrovsky M.B., Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Professor and Corresponding Member, for this largest theft in the history of the Hermitage, which will soon, in 2014, turn a quarter of a millennium, suffered only a reprimand from the talkative on various occasions and occasions on the Kultura channel » former Minister of Culture Mikhail Shvydkoy.
By the way, the former relative of M.B. Piotrovsky Natasha Dementyeva (the former wife of his cousin) was the Minister of Culture under Yeltsin and distinguished herself when Yeltsin buried the so-called “Ekaterinburg remains”, which are not recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the true bodies of the family of the last Russian emperor.
One of Natasha's deputies was Misha, by the name of Shvydkoi, who swung chairs with Natasha, who, already a minister, announced to Piotrovsky M.B. for the "exploits" of the thief Larisa Zavadskaya, only a reprimand.
But after all, for similar offenses (oversight of theft), Defense Minister Serdyukov not so long ago lost his high place ...
M.B. Piotrovsky is “sitting”! Let's add still...
"World Citizen of St. Petersburg", supporting a small clan in the form of a virtual "World Club of St. Petersburg", an international and Russian order bearer, listed in the list of honorary citizens of St. Petersburg, Mr. M.B. Piotrovsky fools his superiors with unctuous songs, tales and jokes about "the cultural heritage and the unsurpassed role of the Hermitage in the history of Russia."
In general, not Dostoevsky - a symbol of Russian culture, but Piotrovsky! However, as is known, the concept of culture, like any other category, is a sought-for one, which creates ground for speculations by comrade (former communist) Mikhail Piotrovsky.
It is widely known that Mikhail Piotrovsky is a scientist, a specialist in Islam (and, therefore, a propagandist of the ideas of the Koran - who sincerely does not like his professional knowledge, for which he receives money?).
But for some reason, he is also a laureate of awards, as well as the son of an Armenian woman and a Russified Pole-communist B.B. regional committee of the CPSU, who approved the award lists), a member of the regional committee of the CPSU, fooling around about "the bright future of all mankind - communism"!
Once again I would like to ask: who maintains the information site of the State Hermitage Museum - not a professor or academician Mikhail Piotrovsky, but also Piotrovsky. Isn't he a relative of the General Director of the State Hermitage Museum?
You can continue further, but until the time has come ...!