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Russian museum. Benois Wing St-Petersburg

22.07.2015 - 31.10.2015

NEW ACQUISITIONS. 1998-2014

NEW ACQUISITIONS. 1998-2014

The exhibition includes the pieces of art that fulfilled the collection of the State Russian Museum in 1998 (the last exhibition of the new acquisitions) – 2014.

In this period the museum was able to purchase more than 2 000 objects of different genres and trends among which there are plenty of masterpieces. At the same time, the main source of fulfilling the collection were the numerous and lavish gifts which presented to the museum over 12 000 pieces of art. Among the most valuable is the gift from the prominent Leningrad collectors I. and J. Rzhevsky, presented to the museum in 1998 and currently exhibited in the permanent exposition of the Marble Palace and published in the catalogue in 2006. Apart from this gift, the collection of the Russian museum was enriched by many other gifts, and the Russian museum is largely grateful to all the donators – collectors, artists and their heirs for taking part in the widening of the museum collection.

As a result of the multilateral activity of the museum aimed at enlargement the collection, it included the works of the renowned masters as well as of those prominent artists whose impact on art is still wrongly underestimated. During the last decades, the authors’ list of the collection was extended by the new names while the creative work of those masters whose pieces of art have already been present in the collection is now reflected more comprehensively. Moreover, the museum permanently inspects the current artistic process in order to adequately reflect the contemporary situation in the art sphere.

Building up the museum collection is a captivating process that reflects the spirit of the times as well as the possibilities of the museum and participation of its donators – Ministry of Culture and sponsors. The new acquisitions exhibition is aimed to acquaint the visitors with the museum as a living organism, growing and altering, analyzing the national past and its traditions as well as interacting with the current artistic process and taking part in its formation.