Hermitage director says ritual significance now outweighs artistic value in Russian society, defends transfer of relics to Orthodox Church

The director of the Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, has commented on the transfer of religious relics from Russian museums to the Russian Orthodox Church, saying the Hermitage acted because ritual meaning now outweighs artistic significance in Russian society.

In 2023, the Church received Andrei Rublev’s icon “Trinity,” which had been held at the Tretyakov Gallery, and in April 2026 it was reported that the Church received two more icons from the same museum — “Our Lady of Vladimir” and “Our Lady of the Don.” The Hermitage transferred the silver reliquary of Alexander Nevsky to the Church in 2023. Each transfer has been accompanied by public debate, with members of the museum community expressing concern that the objects would not be stored under proper conditions.

Piotrovsky told the Russian business daily Kommersant that he does not comment on the decisions of other museums or his colleagues. “Each case is entirely separate, and the ‘Trinity’ by Rublev has its own particular story,” he said.

The purpose of transferring the reliquary, Piotrovsky said, was to reunite the saint’s relics with his tomb. He added that he receives daily climate monitoring data from the Annunciation Church at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where the reliquary is currently kept.

The reliquary is eventually to be moved to the Trinity Cathedral at the Lavra, where, Piotrovsky acknowledged, “creating the right climate conditions is very difficult.” Working together with the Lavra’s leadership, he said, “we will be able to manage it.”

“Over many years, the Hermitage has built a style of communication with the Russian Orthodox Church based on goodwill,” Piotrovsky said. “We understand that our approaches differ — the museum’s and the Church’s. But we need to find common ground.”