(29 May 2012) LEADIN
Moscow's Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art is marking its hundreth anniversary.
It houses world renowned art and artefacts from antiquity to the modern day.
STORYLINE
Jacques-Louis David's painting - the Portrait of Alphonse Leroy shows his subject as a writer, a thinker and someone who had his finger on the pulse of society in 1783.
It's one of several world famous paintings that adorn the walls of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art in the Russian capital.
Also on show: the Portrait of Prince Baltasar Carlos on horseback by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez, bearing a staff of command and wearing a general's sash.
Plus there's Happy Family by Louise Le Nain, dated 1642.
For one hundred years the museum has educated and entertained Muscovites and visitors to the city.
An historical retrospective of the museum's life is now on show pointing out the highlights of the museum's past 100 years.
The centenary exhibition includes photos, films and historical documents.
It charts the social and political changes the museum has undergone since it opened in 1912.
Head of the Manuscript Department at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art Margarita Aksenenko says preparing the centenary exhibition was a huge task.
"100 years is a date with round figures and as with any institution it's worth celebrating and telling the story of our history. We faced many difficulties preparing this exhibition that our history. It (the history of the museum) is massive, dramatic and with many levels and to put it in an exhibition format was very difficult. This exhibition is a summary, a condensed version. Nevertheless here are present the main periods and events that explains all parts of this long 100 years story."
Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art Irina Antonova says the museum has pieces from around the world.
"This is a museum of global artistic culture. It's peculiarity is that here we have art from around the world, foreign art, but also large collections of Russian art especially graphics, Numismatics (the study or collection of currency), and, if you include the museum's private collections, painting as well. The main theme of museum is the dialogue of cultures.
Head of Art and Archaeology of the Ancient World Vladimir Tolstikov says he is very proud of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art.
"Our museum has contributed to the nation's science, art, museum management studies and to the enlightenment of our nation. That's has happened since the beginning of it's existence in 1912 until today."
Director of the Liechtenstein collection in Vienna, Austria Johan Kreftnann, says over the years the museum has provided the Russian people with a valuable resource.
"Here (in Russia) people couldn't travel so much in that period, so people could come to this place and study things. It's a unique situation for students, for children here to go and to see world objects on one place, connected. Especially what's in the Renaissance gallery for instance, also in the Antique Gallery here. What's here collected in one place, you can compare things as you can never do except the exhibitions in other foreign places so it really make sense what happens."
The largest museum of European art in Moscow looks set to continue its success well into the future.
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