Hermitage Day in Oman

The State Hermitage and the National Museum of the Sultanate of Oman have a long-standing relationship: in 2015 the museums signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the sphere of cultural collaboration. The agreement is aimed at strengthening relations, deepening mutual understanding between the culture of the two countries, collaboration and the long-term development of the museums.

The Hermitage Day in Oman was formally opened by His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tarik al-Said, the Minister of Heritage and Culture and Chairman of the National Museum’s Board of Trustees. The gathering was welcomed by Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, and Jamal al-Moosawi, Director of the National Museum of Oman. The museum directors signed an agreement on the Hermitage providing internships in 2019 for members of the National Museum’s staff to increase their qualifications.

One of the chief events of the day was a lecture given in Arabic by Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky entitled “’A Storehouse of Secrets’ – the Hermitage’s collection of Islamic art”.

An exhibition of masterpieces of decorative and applied art from the collection of the State Hermitage included a number of unique exhibits: a sabre that Catherine II presented to Count Alexei Orlov-Chesmensky, a snuffbox bearing a portrait of Catherine II and a porcelain vase decorated with the Russian imperial coat of arms and an inscription in Arabic.

The exhibition is in return for the exhibition of works of jewellery and book art from the National Museum of Oman that was held in the Hermitage last summer.

A considerable portion of the programme for the Hermitage Day was devoted to an exchange of experience in restoration and conservation. Two artist- restorers from the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Graphic Art, Darya Smirnova and Suren Asaturian, gave practical master classes in the restoration of the paper of book pages and elements of the binding. Maxim Lapshin, an artist-restorer in the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Easel Paintings, demonstrated methods of conserving the damaged support of a painting.

The holding of a Hermitage Day in the National Museum of Oman will become one more demonstration of the close interaction between the countries in the sphere of culture.
 

More about the exhibition