The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, announced plans to organize an exhibition on Iran and Central Asia's culture in the National Museum of Iran in Tehran after four decades.
According to ECO Cultural Institute quoting IRNA, Head of the Central Asia, Caucasus and Crimea Sector of the Oriental Department of the State Hermitage Museum Pavel Lurie added in a meeting with Director General of the National Museum of Iran Jebrael Nokandeh that Hermitage Museum is willing to hold an exhibition on the culture of Iran and Central Asia in Tehran.
Visiting Lurie also hoped that Hermitage Museum would host an exhibition of artworks of National Museum of Iran.
Nokandeh, for his part, referred to long history of communications between the two museums and holding mutual exhibitions in 1970s, saying that the two museums intend to have fresh collaborations after a long time.
The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The second-largest art museum in the world, it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on December 7, Saint Catherine's Day.
Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprise over three million items (the numismatic collection accounts for about one-third of them), including the largest collection of paintings in the world.
Of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five-namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and Hermitage Theatre-are open to the public.