Hermitage Museum. What used to be in the Hermitage? Peacock watch and other curiosities

This year the country's largest museum turns 250 years old. About 3 million people visit the Hermitage annually, this is the highest figure among Russian museums. Almost every visitor wants not only to see the paintings best artists from all over the world, but also to learn about the Hermitage from the other, “undressy” side. After all, you can read about his collection on Wikipedia, but not about the lives of his employees. That's why we answered the most popular questions from visitors to show the museum from a different point of view.

1. What is a must-see in the Hermitage?

Among the world's best museums, the Hermitage stands out for its collection Dutch art XVII century (second floor), good meeting works of impressionists and post-impressionists (now transferred to Main Headquarters), as well as Renaissance art. It houses two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, two works by Raphael and a sculpture by Michelangelo. So significant works There is no world art in any museum in Russia.

Most of all, visitors like the two so-called “Pantries”: “Diamond” and “Golden”. The first one contains jewelry. royal family and diplomatic gifts. There are works by Faberge, brooches of Empress Elizabeth and weapons decorated precious stones. The Golden Pantry contains more archaeological finds. The most important thing here is Scythian gold. However, in order to get into these “Pantries”, you need a separate ticket and a guide: it is prohibited to be there without an escort.

Bouquet of flowers. 1740s. "The Diamond Pantry"

2. How long does it take to walk around the entire Hermitage?

The museum's collection includes more than three million exhibits. If you spend at least a minute on each of them, you can see everything in 13 years. Even just to walk around all the halls without stopping at the shop windows will take almost 5 hours. Excursions last on average one and a half to two hours. Visitors get acquainted with the main exhibits and halls: the ceremonial rooms of the Winter Palace, the Peacock clock, halls with works of the Renaissance, Rembrandt and ancient sculpture.

3. Why do other museums force you to wear shoe covers or special slippers, but not here? Doesn't the Hermitage take care of the parquet?

It saves, but there are 300 thousand visitors a day in the Hermitage. You can't put shoe covers on everyone. However, from shoes to high heels visitors are still asked to refrain: the dents remain on the 200-year-old boards forever.

4. “These are probably all copies. The originals were sold to America a long time ago / are in storage / taken out by employees.”

In each group there are tourists who believe that most of the paintings in the Hermitage are copies. Of course, many will chuckle derisively, but all the works on display are genuine.

Yes, a lot was sold at auctions, a lot of things really lie in storerooms, and there was a scandal with one of the curators of the Hermitage, Larisa Zavadskaya, who took exhibits out of the museum for several years. However, everything that hangs on the exhibition is originals. No self-respecting museum will deceive its visitors, and the Hermitage is one of best museums peace.

5. How is everything secured? It feels like anything can be endured.

In all major museums, including in the Hermitage, there are security services. Unlike the police, they do not exercise forceful control, but technical control - they organize an alarm system, a system of perimeter security and protection of individual exhibits. Of course, the level of protection of works is world-class.

At the same time, of course, a lot happened in the Hermitage: paintings were stolen, vases were taken out, and Rembrandt’s “Danae” was doused with acid. This can happen in any museum in the world; no one is safe from theft.

The painting was purchased Alexander III. In 2001, an unknown person cut the canvas from the frame. In 2009 it was returned to the Hermitage, but the thief has not yet been found

6. Is it possible to hide somewhere at night without being found by the guards?

For some reason, visitors believe that art critics or scientists after retirement. In reality, this is not so: any person can be hired, even without education, if he inspires confidence, of course. Due to the small salary and not very active work, older people are more likely to apply for vacancies, although there is no age limit.

This work also has its advantages: the caretakers can choose their own rooms for their shifts, the work schedule is not very intense, and the team is quite friendly. In general, the Hermitage is big family, everyone here knows each other.

The most difficult period of work for caretakers is summer. During the tourist season, the halls are crowded, especially on the second floor. We must ensure that visitors do not touch the exhibits and do not lag behind the groups.

8. How to get to work at the Hermitage?

Unlike the position of a caretaker, it is simply impossible to get into the position of a research assistant. Firstly, the candidate must have higher education. Art historians are not always needed: there are many archaeologists working in the ancient department, and orientalists in the eastern department. However, even education does not guarantee a job at the Hermitage.

There are two options for how you can get hired as an employee. The first is to “shine” at various conferences and round tables, which take place in the museum, meet the heads of departments there. The second is to become a tour guide in the hope of getting the necessary connections. But this option is the most unreliable: some people work this way for years. The best way– choose a scientific supervisor for yourself thesis from the Hermitage staff and so slowly make themselves known. The rest is connections, connections and more connections.

9. Do the guides know about all the paintings?

Almost all Hermitage guides have an education in art history or cultural studies. Many people come from related professions, but before “going on an excursion” they study for almost a year: they analyze in detail the history of buildings, the formation of the collection, and memorize the main works. It’s impossible to know everything, but with a general education in art history, it’s possible to tell about almost any work.

The guides have three groups a day, and he works with each of them for an average of two hours. All this time I have to talk without stopping. You can imagine how tired you feel at the end of the day: your feet are aching, especially if your shoes are uncomfortable, in the summer it’s terribly stuffy in the halls (sometimes people faint in the Rembrandt room), and the visitors can be difficult. But there is also a huge plus: there is nothing better when before going to bed you remember the smiles and gratitude of people, especially if you manage to win the attention of children. You immediately get the feeling that all this is not in vain.

The Hermitage was robbed by its own: museum “werewolves” stole works of art worth more than 130 million rubles

Sergey Andreev
Photo by Zamir Usmanov, Andrey Kulgun

The buzzword “werewolf” took on another meaning last week. The grand theft of 221 exhibits from the collections of the country's main museum is blamed not on criminals from the street, but on the museum employees themselves. Stunned by the incident, the director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, said that the principle of “the presumption of innocence of museum employees” no longer applies. If previously it was believed that a museum worker could under no circumstances cause harm to his own storage, now the opposite is stated. Almost all of the missing exhibits are monuments of jewelry and icon painting from the 15th to 19th centuries. The thieves found themselves in the hands of 107 icons, 10 reliquary crosses, 8 silver chalice bowls, Easter eggs workshop of Carl Faberge, silverware, tabletop figurines of animals made of precious materials, cigarette cases made of silver and gold, watches studded with precious stones, photo frames, a powder compact that belonged to one of Russian empresses, and her own mirror in a silver frame.

The ill-fated storage facility has already been repeatedly inspected by high-ranking employees of the St. Petersburg Central Internal Affairs Directorate, including representatives of the ninth, so-called “antique” department, as well as specialists from Moscow. Neither one nor the other has yet been able to achieve any results. The head of the Hermitage museum security service, Alexander Khozhainov, said that the main goal of the search team is to try to at least accurately determine the date of the theft. Most of missing exhibits were exhibited extremely rarely. For example, some of the missing items in last time exhibited in 2000. Moreover, among the stolen rarities there are also those that Hermitage employees saw and held in their hands 30 or more years ago. Neither Khozhainov nor Mikhail Piotrovsky exclude the possibility that the items could have been stolen more than once. The crime could have dragged on for decades.

But this is not all that is striking in this story. It turns out that the museum workers themselves learned that the most valuable exhibits disappeared to who knows where else... last fall. The custodian responsible for the missing exhibits died at work. Both the Hermitage press service and the head of the museum security service refused to name the deceased curator, citing the secrecy of the investigation. Find out what it is and also find out what's on this moment the deceased is the main suspect in the theft; it was possible only with police officers who wished to remain incognito.

In total, 46-year-old Larisa Alekseevna Zavadskaya worked at the Hermitage for about 30 years. For the last 15 years, she has been a senior researcher at the Department of the History of Russian Culture - the custodian of the fund jewelry. She's the same long time collaborated with the FSB. In mid-October last year, Zavadskaya, the person who was the last to hold the missing exhibits in her hands and personally catalog them, died right at her workplace. At the end of the day, Larisa Alekseevna began to get ready to go home, called her husband and said that she was leaving in 15 minutes. Next, the woman sat down at the computer and after a few moments buried her face in the keyboard. According to the ambulance doctors, she died instantly. Official reason death - a blood clot in the heart.

By a strange coincidence, it was precisely in these October days that the issue of transferring exhibits from the Russian department of the Hermitage to other, younger curators was being decided. While the museum's management had no complaints about Larisa Zavadskaya, the age of her partner (76 years old) was embarrassing. Then it became clear that some items in the collection were missing. The scale of the loss became known only after the death of Larisa Zavadskaya, but even here the museum management was in no hurry to sound the alarm. “The fact that an exhibit is not on the shelf does not mean it has disappeared,” Mikhail Piotrovsky explained to reporters. - A storage unit may go to another fund, because we have more than three million exhibits, to restorers or to a darkroom. Only after the completion of the total inventory did we draw up a corresponding act and notify where it should go.” Only three people, including the late Zavadskaya, had access to the funds where the missing exhibits were stored.

“This is a stab in the back for the Hermitage and the entire museum community,” laments Mikhail Piotrovsky. “And evidence of the deep imperfection of the storage system, built on the presumption of innocence of museum workers.”

The maximum salary of a museum curator is 15 thousand rubles. Any of the employees who hardly fit even into the concept of “middle class” could provide themselves, and at the same time their grandchildren, with a comfortable old age by pocketing any, even the smallest thing. It won’t be difficult to take it out of the Hermitage. Not only are museum employees not searched, but they are not even forced to go through a metal detector.

The grand theft came as a shock to everyone; the museum’s management began to think about new security measures, including applying isotope markers to the exhibits. Law enforcement officials are struggling with the question of where the rarities could have gone. There are various versions - from export abroad (the list and photos of stolen valuables were transferred to Interpol) to the one according to which all the things were hidden by the thief in the Hermitage itself and will be taken out after the noise subsides.

The problem of theft from museum funds is complex and multifaceted. Only high-profile cases become public knowledge: in 2001, in the same Hermitage, thieves who had not yet been found in the middle of the day cut out of the frame and carried away the painting by Jean Leon Gerome “Pool in a Harem”. You can steal from the museum's storerooms with almost impunity. In this regard, the story of the inspection of the Hermitage by the Accounts Chamber in March 2000 is curious. The auditors demanded that museum workers present 50 exhibits, according to documents stored in the funds. The list was compiled according to random principle. The commissions were able to demonstrate only 3 exhibits; another 19 were found after the inspection was completed. No one could tell where the rest went. The same audit revealed that in 2000, 220 thousand exhibits were not assigned to financially responsible persons at all. And 200 storage units were registered as fired or deceased employees.

P.S. Last week, two exhibits from the stolen collection were found. The St. Petersburg Central Internal Affairs Directorate reported dryly about the discovery of the icon “The Cathedral of All Saints”: the image was found in a garbage can near house 21 on Ryleeva Street. An anonymous person allegedly informed about this via “02”. The unofficial version is this: as soon as the list of the missing was announced, a collector came to the “antique” department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate (by a strange coincidence, it is next to house 21 on Ryleeva Street) with the “Cathedral of All Saints” in his hands. The St. Petersburg resident stated that he purchased the icon from a private person back in 2001. The second exhibit - a church chalice - was found last Friday in Moscow from a famous antique dealer, who voluntarily handed it over to the authorities.

Ogonyok dossier

The State Hermitage today has more than 3 million exhibits, half of which fall under the “especially valuable” category. Of these, 300 thousand are the “Russian collection”, 600 thousand are the collection west European art, 1500 - a gallery of jewelry, over a million - the numismatics department, etc. Taking into account the rejection of the principle of the presumption of innocence of museum employees, almost all persons related to the “Russian” department of the Hermitage are under suspicion. By the way, the department of the history of Russian culture is the youngest department of the museum, it was founded in April 1941. At the moment, it has 34 employees, of which two are doctors of science and 13 are candidates. The exhibition developed by the department occupies 50 halls.

Mikhail Piotrovsky is the first major failure of the 61-year-old Hermitage director in his 14 years at the helm of the museum. Piotrovsky - doctor historical sciences, a leading orientalist, one of Putin’s most favored cultural figures. Piotrovsky is the chairman of the Presidential Cultural Council, for some time he even headed the board of directors of ORT, president World Club Petersburgers.

The largest and most significant art, cultural and historical museum in Russia and the world, the State Hermitage Museum, celebrates today its 165th anniversary since it was opened to the public.

The history of the museum began in 1764 with a collection of works of art that was acquired by Empress Catherine II. According to various sources, these are 317 or 225 valuable paintings. Among them were paintings mainly by the Dutch-Flemish school of the first half XVII century. Today at least 96 of them survive in the Hermitage.

This meeting was housed in a special palace outbuilding - the Small Hermitage (from the French ermitage - a place of solitude, cell, hermitage, retreat). In 1852, the Imperial Hermitage was formed and opened to the public.

In 1769, in Dresden, the Hermitage acquired a rich collection of the Saxon minister Count Brühl, numbering about 600 paintings, including Titian’s landscape “Flight into Egypt”, views of Dresden and Pirna by Bellotto, etc.

Large and important additions to the collection took place in 1772 and 1779. During this period, it became clear that there was not enough space and the architect Felten was building the building of the Great Hermitage. The posthumous inventory of Catherine's property in 1796 lists 3,996 paintings.

During the reign of Alexander I and Nicholas I, not only collections were purchased, but also individual works artists whose works were absent from the Hermitage. Nicholas I realized the idea of ​​transforming the Hermitage into public museum February 17, 1852.

Before mid-19th centuries, only a select few could visit the Hermitage. Thus, A.S. Pushkin was able to obtain a pass only thanks to the recommendation of V. Zhukovsky, who served as a mentor to the emperor’s son. At that time the museum had the richest collections of monuments of ancient Eastern, ancient Egyptian, ancient and medieval cultures, Western and of Eastern Europe, archaeological and artistic monuments Asia, Russian culture of the 8th-19th centuries.

By 1880, museum attendance reached 50,000 people a year.

In the 19th century, the Hermitage began to systematically receive works by Russian painters. In 1895, some of the works of Russian artists were transferred to the Russian Museum. Materials are transferred to the museum archaeological excavations, which significantly enriched his department. By the beginning of the 20th century, the museum already stored thousands of paintings, and then new works of art appeared in its collection. So the Hermitage became the center of Russian art history and came new era life of the museum.

After the fall of imperial power, the Hermitage underwent significant transformations. The museum was significantly enriched by nationalized private collections and the collection of the Academy of Arts. From the main collection of the Winter Palace, the museum received many interior items, as well as Mughal treasures presented by Nadir Shah.

As a result of the closure of the Museum of the New Western art in 1948 and another redistribution cultural heritage Between the museums of Leningrad and Moscow, parts of the Moscow collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov joined the Hermitage. Now chronological framework the collections expanded significantly with works by the Impressionists, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso and other artists of new movements.

Irreversible damage to the collection was caused by sales in 1929-34, as a result of which 48 masterpieces left Russia forever. The Hermitage lost the only work by Van Eyck, the best works of Raphael, Botticelli, Hals and a number of other old masters.

During the Great Patriotic War the bulk of the Hermitage collection (more than two million items) was evacuated to the Urals. The basements of the Hermitage buildings turned into bomb shelters, and it did not function as a museum. However, the Hermitage staff continued to conduct scientific work and even organize lectures on art history. Not a single exhibit was lost during the war, and only a small part of them needed to be restored.

At the beginning of 1957, the third floor of the Winter Palace opened to visitors, where works from the Museum of New Western Art were exhibited.

Immediately after the fall " iron curtain» The Hermitage was the first Russian museum to announce that its storerooms contain “trophy” works of impressionists and neo-impressionists, which were considered lost since the end of the war.

In post-Soviet times, the Hermitage began to make efforts to fill gaps in its collection of 20th-century art. The International Foundation for Friends of the Hermitage was organized. In 2002, the exhibition was replenished with one of the versions of Malevich’s “Black Square”. In 2006, the Hermitage 20/21 Project was launched, aimed at displaying and purchasing contemporary art.

Interesting Facts

Cats work in the Hermitage. In the 18th century, when rats began to damage the walls of the Winter Palace, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna issued a “Decree on the expulsion of cats to the court,” according to which selected hunters were to be sent to her. And Catherine II granted cats an official status: “guards of art galleries.”

The museum is guarded by about 70 cats: they are called “freelance employees”, each is issued their own passport, and they are allowed to move around the entire territory of the museum, except for the halls. American Mary Ann Ellin, who once visited the Hermitage with her granddaughter, even published a children's book dedicated to the Hermitage cats - part of the proceeds from sales of the book in the USA was spent on caring for the animals.

There was a garage in the Hermitage. Emperor Nicholas II was very fond of cars: he bought his first car in 1905, and by 1911 there were already about 50 different brands in the imperial car fleet. It had a car wash, a gas station and its own steam heating system to prevent cars from being damaged by corrosion. In 1917, during the looting of the Hermitage, the entire vehicle fleet of Nicholas II disappeared.

It will take 11 years to explore the Hermitage. The Hermitage today is one of the most popular museums in the world and the largest in Russia. It contains more than three million exhibits, which are presented in five huge buildings. In order to even pass by all the works of art, you need to cover 24 kilometers. And if you spend about a minute with each person, it will take 11 years to go through all the halls: and this is provided that the visitor will visit the museum every day for eight, or even ten hours.

Description

During the year, the Hermitage is visited by 3 million people. The main influx of visitors is from May to September, at this time 200-300 people enter the museum in 20 minutes

The museum's collection includes more than 3 million 106 thousand exhibits. Of these, paintings - about 17 thousand, graphic works - 623 thousand, sculptures - about 13 thousand, works applied arts- over 357 thousand, archaeological objects of art - 751 thousand, numismatic monuments - more than 1 million 122 thousand, rare books- about 350, weapons - 14 thousand, etc. In the photo: Small Spanish clearance

The modern Hermitage is a complex of five buildings located on Palace Embankment and Millionnaya Street: Winter Palace, Big (Old) Hermitage, Small Hermitage, New Hermitage, Hermitage Theatre. In addition, the museum’s collections are housed in the General Staff building on Palace Square and in the Menshikov Palace on Universitetskaya embankment. On the picture: Main staircase New Hermitage

In the Rembrandt Hall in the Hermitage, 24 paintings by the famous Dutchman are exhibited. One of the most famous paintings The artist is painted in 1636-1647. "Danae." In 1985, she was seriously injured - one of the visitors, later recognized as crazy, doused the painting with acid and slashed it with a knife. It took 12 years to restore Rembrandt's painting

The museum contains 180 thousand objects representing the art of the East, including works of painting, sculpture, applied art, jewelry, writing samples, etc. The exhibits are presented in 50 halls. In the photo: Jordan Stairs State Hermitage

The collection of ancient antiquities includes over 170 thousand items, including collections of painted vases, carved stones, antique sculpture, archaeological sites Northern Black Sea region, jewelry, etc. In the photo: children on an excursion near the sculpture of Jupiter, after which the Hermitage hall was named

To protect exhibits from rodents, cats have been living in the Hermitage basements since the time of Catherine II. More than 50 cats, cats and kittens are constantly in service at the museum. They live freely in the spacious basements of the Hermitage, but animals are not allowed into the exhibition halls

The collection of European art contains about 600 thousand objects and covers the period from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The collection includes more than 7 thousand paintings, 2 thousand sculptures, 40 thousand drawings, 500 thousand engravings

The collection of exhibits of ancient and early medieval cultures in the Hermitage contains almost 2 million items and is one of the best and largest in Russia

Soviet staircase. It got its name from the State Council, which in the 19th century. was located on the first floor. Especially for him, a new entrance and a new staircase were built in the western part of the building (architect A. I. Stackenschneider)

The total area of ​​premises (buildings) of the State Hermitage is 233 thousand 345 square meters. m. Of these, the exhibition area occupies 66 thousand 842 square meters. m. In the photo: Atlantean sculptures on the portico of the Small Hermitage

Editorial