New Building of the Russian Icon Museum Opened in Moscow, Russia

27/01/2011

New building of the Russian Icon Museum was opened in the center of the Russian capital. The largest private collection in Russia will be displayed in two private residences in Goncharnaya Street, united into one building. By means of it the museum will be able to exhibit practically all collection comprising about 4,000 works of Old Russian and Eastern Christian art, including the icon «Virgin Odigitria» by Simon Ushakov, icon of Saint Nikolay Mirlikiisky and the collection of Pskov icons of the 16th century. The exposition also features the Old Believer chapel of the mid-19th-century.

The Russian Icon Museum was opened in 2006 at the initiative of Russian businessman Mikhail Abramov. In addition to the exhibit items, the building also has a conference hall, library and the icon painter studio enabling to demonstrate the process of creating an icon.

At the opening ceremony on January 25, the Rostov Kremlin received an exhibit item stolen from its collection in the middle of the 1990s. That was a wooden cross of the middle of 16th century subsequently found in a private collection abroad and returned by efforts of the Russian Federal Surveillance Service for Compliance with the Law in Mass Communications and Cultural Heritage Protection

Earlier, the collection of the Museum of Russian Icon was randomly exhibited in various venues, including the Tretyakov Gallery (2008) and the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (2009), as well as several other museums in Russia and abroad. Now that the museum had got its own premises – two private residences in Goncharnaya Street, united into one building – the museum is welcoming visitors daily except Wednesday, free of charge.

Specialists say that some of the exhibits in the collection are more valuable than the masterpieces of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum. The icon ”Virgin Odigitria” (14th century) by Simon Ushakov, icon of Saint Nikolay Mirlikiisky (14th century) and a Greek iconostasis of the late 17th century are among the most valuable exhibits in the collection. Icon "Affection” (15th century) from the Greek island of Crete – which by a miracle was not burned in last year’s fire in the Grabar Art Center – is also on display here in the newly open Russian Icon Museum.