The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg has been under close scrutiny regarding a possible misuse of funds and the disappearance of thousands of objects from its reserves. Many porcelain pieces produced during the 18th and 19th Century loaned to Soviet officials years ago for the marriages of their daughters have yet to be returned to the museum, according to a report published by an official committee in .
The financial situation of the museum has been described as disastrous while thousands of objects are apparently missing from its reserves. The committee also noted that the Museum housed 27 trade organisations and that none of these were paying any rent while huge sums were spent for cleaning the premises whereas five of the nine firms in charge of cleaning had no official address. Out of 221,351 objects stored in the reserves of the museums at least 90% of these are reportedly missing since when members of the committee asked to see 50 objects only three could be found.
Museum officials said they had in fact found all these objects and accused the committee of incompetence stressing that the museum was not like any commercial company. Mikhail Piotrovski, head of the museum, however admitted that due to a lack of staff it was difficult to make up an appropriate list of objects left in the reserves. Nevertheless, archives are being computerized and only a few objects are known to have in fact disappeared.
The investigation committee intends to seize justice regarding the functioning of the museum as it cannot admit the fact that over 200,000 objects are not under proper surveillance. In addition, it has discovered that several contracts signed between the Hermitage and several foreign museums brought no substantial profits.
It signalled that 92 exhibitions were held from January 1998 until September 1999 in many Western capitals and that huge sums of money, amounting to a total of US $ 850,000 had not been paid to the museum. All the more, the Hermitage did not ask for copyright fees for reproductions (catalogues, photos, posters) regarding 26 exhibitions.
The committee also accused the Hermitage museum of having accept to extend the dates of 26 exhibitions without any compensation whereas insurance policies were no longer valid, meaning that hundreds of works have been left without protection for many days if not weeks.
Members of the committee added they could not believe that the Hermitage had accept to prolong so many exhibitions without asking for any money and suspected Mr Piotrovski of having received funds secretly. They suggested that an international investigation should be carried out to determine exactly how these exhibitions were prolonged.
Mr Piotrovski retorted that he had adopted a philanthropic attitude in that matter but however admitted he had felt not at ease with it came to ask foreign museums to get involved financially regarding the extension of an exhibition.
It now rests with the Kremlin to decide whether criminal charges should be brought against museum officials but it seems unlikely that the Russian government will take any action in that direction especially as Mr Piotrovski has been one of the most influential supporters of Mr Vladimir Poutine during his presidential campaign.
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