31 may 2012

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev speaks at a ceremony dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

Participants:

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's address:

Good evening, friends. Tonight, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, which is one of Russia's most renowned cultural centres of international significance. I am very pleased to welcome guests from many foreign countries representing the international museum community. Thank you very much for coming.

I would like to congratulate all those present here on this anniversary, primarily, the museum staff who work hard and use all their talent to develop and promote this beautiful museum. On a separate note, I would like to extend my congratulations to the museum's perennial director Irina Antonova.

Thank you very much. The Pushkin Museum was instituted after a long golden age in Russian culture. As is known, the museum was established at Moscow University as an educational and artistic institution open to public. Ms Antonova just showed me beautiful albums with photos capturing the museum's history over the past 100 years. Gradually the museum has gathered unique collections and paintings of various eras and schools. The leading museums of the world have brought their collections here, making this museum extremely popular. Here, for the first time, our people saw the paintings of Dresden’s Old Masters Picture Gallery back in 1955, as well as the famous Mona Lisa. And, of course, now the museum puts on brilliant exhibitions, and the museum acquires true works of art from all over the world. And, of course, we are very grateful to all those who make this possible, to those museums that display their paintings in this country, and, of course, to those people who take such decisions.  

Everything develops in this world; museum work develops too and becomes more interesting. Of course, funding is needed, but in any case, if it were not for those people working selflessly every hour and every day on this, not a single collection, not even the richest collection would sparkle and give joy to millions of people. The government realises that. We, of course, will support the museum by all means and naturally will do our best to develop it according to the current concept, which involves creating a large museum complex. I hope that in 100 years Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts will still be a source of pride for everybody who lives in this country and in other countries.

Friends, I hope that you will enjoy this night, and once again I would like to congratulate you all on the brilliant anniversary of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. I wish you all the best!