This year, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts celebrates its 100th anniversary. The museum has one of the largest foreign art collections in Russia. The museum was open for the public on May, 31, 1912 as a University Museum. Academician of the Russian Art Academy Irina Antonova has headed the museum since 1961.
The Museum was first created as a University museum with didactic materials for students. It was created on the basis of a collection of copies of ancient, medieval and Renaissance sculpture, and it was not conceived as a museum of originals. However, according to Antonova, the founder of the museum, Ivan Tsvetaev, a very sagacious person, realized on the very dawn of the museum’s existence, even when the building wasn’t yet ready, that it would develop as a museum of originals: “In the early 20th century, before the opening of the museum, a gift of Italian and Cretan icons was made to the museum, and Tsvetaev accepted it with delight. The gift was made by a certain Shekin, the Russian consul in Trieste. So the founder of the museum used to say that the painting came to the museum by itself. He meant that the museum was supposed to exhibit only sculpture, but still the painting appeared. Then there was the opportunity to obtain a collection of high-class ancient Egyptian sculpture. The collection was created by Professor Golenishchev, an outstanding person and scholar. By the way, he was the founder of the Chair of Egyptology at Cairo University, so he was a scholar of great authority. And so his outstanding collections of high-class chef-d'oeuvres was also given to our museum, even though not without a struggle and great efforts on the part of Tsvetayev to get it.
"And then everything changed after the Revolution. They decided to make a World Artistic Cultural Museum in Moscow, and on the basis of revolutionary laws, such as nationalization of private collections and the new practice of dividing already-existing collections and sending parts to different museums, our Museum of Fine Arts got its painting department. Then there was a political event: in 1948, on Stalin’s orders, the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Western Art was closed. And it was such a unique museum in Moscow. It appeared in 1923 on the basis of two absolutely phenomenal collections of Sergei Shukin and Ivan Morozov. They used to collect pictures that even the Louvre wouldn’t take at the time. The Louvre refused to accept Gustave Caillebotte’s collection of impressionists and post-impressionists. But those two merchants from Moscow started collecting those pictures. The collections were nationalized in 1918, and as a result this museum was created in 1923. I would like to stress that this was the first museum of modern art in the world, as the New York Museum of Modern Art was opened only in 1928.
"The collection of that museum was divided into two parts; one of them went to the State Hermitage, and the other – to our museum. And that is how our most important collections were formed. I mean, the formation is ongoing, but we got all our world-class masterpieces in that era.
"In 1974 the legendary Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci was demonstrated in and it was a great joy for everyone. During its display – from June 14 to July 28, - a queue was always standing in front of the museum. Those who couldn’t get there in the evening stayed all night to see it in the morning. And, due to the limited term of the exhibition, no one could spend much time in front of the painting, it was like a slow procession passing by the picture. And I remember that people who left the exhibition hall didn’t turn their backs on the picture but backed away in order to keep the picture in their sight for as long as possible.
"And of course I’ll never forget how the picture got to the museum. We escorted it from the airdrome with all due caution and security, but our main task was to ensure its absolute preservation. Everything had to be ideal. We developed a special showcase and ordered 6 big glass sheets apart from the one that was already there. So you can imagine when it all arrived at 12 o’clock at night… The picture was already taken from its container and put in its place, and we had to install the glass. The first one cracked, even though we’d made a special order and it was brought to us from Ukraine, then the second one cracked… Well, after 4 pains of glass cracked, one of the Ministry representatives said that he couldn’t bear it and that he was leaving. But my nerves had to be iron-hard. Then the 5th glass cracked, but the 6th remained intact and it protected the picture throughout the exhibition. We took every possible precaution, including with the alarm, and an armed detachment was on watch in the neighboring room around the clock. And there was one incident: one woman threw a rose at the show-case (probably her feelings overwhelmed her), and of course the alarm went off. So in a second a group of armed men surrounded the picture. But still the viewers were delighted, no matter how long they had to stand in line, as it is a truly legendary piece of art".
