Branches:
The School of Filonov
Marble Palace

The School of Filonov

6 October 2023—15 April 2024

“The Collective of Masters of Analytical Art. The School of Filonov” existed from the summer of 1925 until the master’s death in December 1941. The school’s work was based on ...

From Orest Kiprensky to Pavel Fedotov. Drawings and Watercolours of the First Half of the 19th Century
St Michael’s Castle

From Orest Kiprensky to Pavel Fedotov. Drawings and Watercolours of the First Half of the 19th Century

12 October 2023—26 February 2024

The exhibition From Orest Kiprensky to Pavel Fedotov, introduces viewers to some of the finest e...

Vasily Surikov. 175th Anniversary of the Artist's Birth
The State Russian Museum

Vasily Surikov. 175th Anniversary of the Artist's Birth

1 December 2023—10 June 2024

The exhibition presents over 120 paintings and graphic works by Surikov from the museums in St Petersburg, Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, including th...

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Military Parades: Porcelain and Watercolour
Stroganov Palace

Military Parades: Porcelain and Watercolour

15 December 2023—13 May 2024

The exhibition is dedicated to a hundred-year-old tradition of producing decorative “military plates” depicting imperial army uniforms. Besides plates, t...

/ / The Art Conservation Department
Opening hours
mih-dvorets_01_yuzhny-fasad.jpg
Monday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Mikhailovsky Palace, Benois Wing are open until 8:p.m.
Tuesday The museum is closed
Wednesday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Thursday 1:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Friday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Ticket offices close 30 minutes earlier

Getting here

4 Inzhenernaya Str., St. Petersburg

Metro - Gostiny Dvor, Nevsky Prospekt

The Art Conservation Department


ГЛАВНАЯ КАРТИНКА--НАВЕРХУ.jpgSince the museum was founded in 1898, the Russian Museum’s art collection has required continuous monitoring of its conservation state. By 1906, the question had already been raised about the need for the museum to establish a dedicated restoration studio that would be able to solve the pressing need to maintain the constantly expanding collection. During the period between 1906 and 1910, A.Ya. Boravsky put together his celebrated plan to create a conservation studio at the Russian Museum. Due to a lack of funds, however, it was not to be.

After the October Revolution of 1917, thousands of nationalized works of art from private collections and religious objects belonging to cathedrals and monasteries across Russia began to converge on the walls of state museums. The enlargement of collections and the creation of new departments that held pieces of various ages and materials were a reason for major museums of the country to organize conservation departments. In 1922, by a decision of the Council of the Department of Arts, such a studio was created at the Russian Museum. It was run by the experienced art conservator N.A. Okolovich, an enthusiast of activities in the museum sphere. In order to restore various kinds of items for exhibition, he and his colleagues had to creatively rethink the traditional methods of the national school of art conservation, and create new methodology for the preservation of various materials. These years laid the foundation upon which all subsequent generations of conservators have built their work, transferring their knowledge and skills to one another. During the war years of 1941-1945, conservators, along with the rest of museum staff, actively participated in the evacuation of the museum’s works to Perm, where the main part of the collection was stored. Some staff members remained in blockaded Leningrad, where they monitored the building and the works of art that remained.

After the war, a new period began for conservation work and bringing the work into exhibition condition. The focus of art conservation department’s work became preserving works of art and preventing further damage. The staff of the department also participated in the recreation of new exhibitions. During the postwar period, the art conservation department’s work was concentrated on preservation and the conservation of artworks. In a number of cases, the old methods needed to be reexamined, especially regarding the conservation of Old Russian painting.

The museum’s wide-ranging expedition activities in the 1950s drastically increased the size of the collection. The scientific study of the new acquisitions, the accumulation of information and analyses, and the necessity of broadening knowledge about materials and the execution of conservation techniques led to a differentiated approach to the study and preservation of the pieces. A result of this process was the goal of having conservators with narrower specializations. At the beginning of the 1950s, the conservation studio was divided into new subdivisions. Thus, the studio for graphic restoration (1953) and Old Russian painting (1954) were created. At the beginning of the 1960s, the wooden sculpture, decorative carving and furniture department and the textile department were created. In 1969, an independent studio for the restoration of plaster and stone sculpture was created.

In later years, new studios were created, in particular, the division of Conservation of Applied Arts (1970), which works with ceramics, glass, and metal pieces; and the Frame Restoration Division (1981). The studio for paintings in mixed media was made into its own division (1990). This process continues to the present day. Aiming toward a complex study of the works and the reveal of its characteristic peculiarities on the one hand, and the emergence of new technology and methods of scientific research based on the latest scientific achievements on the other led to creation of physics and chemistry laboratories in 1970. These divisions became bases for analysis and scientific experiments in solving problems for preservation and conservation of pieces. The goal of analyzing and understanding processes connected with the development of the theory of conservation and the study of the ethics of restoring works led to the establishment of the Division of the Theory and History of Museum Art Conservation.

A defining characteristic of the contemporary state of art conservation at the Russian Museum is the scientific approach to all stages of work. This applies to the comprehensive technological, historical, and artistic study of the work before conservation work begins, the development of the optimal and safest method of intervention based on the results of said study, the discussion of the information received from conservation councils, and objective and accurate documentation and monitoring while the work is in progress.

Today, the Russian Museum’s Art Conservation Department is a contemporary scientific conservation center consisting of 16 divisions staffed by 96 specialists of the highest professional level. 

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The collection of masterpieces, chosen by the Russian Museum will allow you to make a first impression of the collection of the Russian Museum.

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Virtual tours
Virtual tours

Russian Museum - one of the world's largest museums and is perhaps the only country where such a full treasure of national culture are presented.
Virtual tour of the museum complex. 2009 (Rus., Eng., Ger., Fin.)

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Online Shop
Online Shop

In the online shop of the Russian Museum presented a huge range of souvenirs, illustrated editions and multimedia disks.

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