News
New Palmyra Agreement Demonstrates Russia’s Continuing Soft Power Influence on Syria
The two countries signed a memorandum on the restoration of monuments and artifacts in the ancient city.
Hermitage Museum
News
Staff Stole 162 Artifacts from Museum of Macedonia
Last Friday, a judge in the Macedonian capital Skopje convicted six employees at the state-owned Museum of Macedonia of stealing objects from the institution’s collection and selling them abroad through an organized crime ring, AFP reported.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week's art crime blotter: Cops don't care for anti-cop mural, misattribution embarrasses Toronto art detectives, and an ice sculpture smasher is on the loose.
Interview
From Hermitage Cats to a Chernobyl Safari, Anna Jermolaewa's Counter Histories
By now the Hermitage cats, the troupe of feline pest control agents residing at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, are well known, but Anna Jermolaewa is providing some historical context for all the cuteness.
In Brief
Curator Admits Manifesta Art Biennial in Russia Is in Trouble
The chief curator of Manifesta, the roving European Biennial of Contemporary Art, told Deutsche Welle that the biennial has hit an "impasse: nothing’s happening."
Art
The End of Fun in Russia
ST. PETERSBURG — Jake and Dinos Chapman’s exhibit The End of Fun at the newly refurbished contemporary wing of The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, is under attack from Russian Orthodox Christian believers, who feel insulted by aspects of the brothers' show, even though the exhibit
Performance
A Report from Cyberfest: Russia's New Media Festival
Cyberfest, the first and only yearly festival of international media art in Russia, was founded in 2007 by artists and curators Anna Frants and Marina Koldobskaya. Since that time they have brought hundreds of international media artists to St. Petersburg, and in the process raising its internationa
News
Major Art Exchange Between Prado and Hermitage
Two European museum powerhouses, the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, have signed an agreement to temporarily swap 236 art masterpieces in what it is an unprecedented exchange between two major art institutions.