Twenty-five years ago, in December 1990, the first stone was laid in the foundation of the State Hermitage’s Repository, beginning construction of the Staraya Derevnya restoration and storage complex.
That event is now commemorated by a plaque formally unveiled in the Carriage Hall by Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, on 8 December: “Here, on 4 December 1990, the first stone was laid in the foundation of the building of the Repository of the State Hermitage.”
In the White Hall of the Restoration and Storage Centre, a photographic exhibition entitled Kaleidoscope is running during these celebratory days in December. It is devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Staraya Derevnya complex and was prepared by a team from the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Photographic Materials (headed by Tatyana Sayatina) in the Department of Scientific Restoration and Conservation (headed by Tatyana Baranova). “This exhibition is a view of the unique and changeable world of our museum that encompasses many people and a great variety of professions,” say the Hermitage restorers.
