MUSCAT: The National Museum, represented by the Learning Centre, organised a lecture on Moscow Kremlin Museums presented by Dr Elena Gagarina, the General Director of Moscow Kremlin Museums.
The National Museum, by organising this event, aims at enhancing cultural and museum exchange with international museums.
During the lecture, Dr Gagarina gave a historical overview of the Moscow Kremlin Museums and the ancient buildings it contains that reflect Russian architecture, including historical palaces that were the headquarters of the rulers of Russia in the past.
She also spoke about the Armoury Chamber, Russia's oldest treasury museum, established in 1806 by the decree of Emperor Alexander I. The collections of the Armoury Chamber include ancient state regalia, ceremonial royal robes and coronation dresses and vestments of hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest collection of pieces made by Russian and Western European goldsmiths and silversmiths, including the world’s largest collection of Fabergé Easter eggs, Russian and Oriental arms and armours and a unique collection of royal carriages.
The architectural ensemble of the Moscow Kremlin and the Red Square were included in the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO) list in 1990.
Dr Gagarina also discussed the most prominent efforts of the four sections of scientific restoration in the Moscow Kremlin Museums including metals, paintings, textiles and paper. She also highlighted other principal activities of museums, including holding exhibitions and cultural programmes, lectures, workshops and special publications, which in turn enrich the visitor’s experience.
It is worth noting that Moscow Kremlin Museums receives about two million visitors every year, and includes more than 160,000 objects of art stored in the Moscow Kremlin Museums, and more than 4,000 objects of art are on permanent display at the Armoury. The overall chronological frame of the collection is rather wide – from the end of the 3rd millennium BC to the present.
Dr Elena Gagarina, born in 1959 in the Murmansk region of Russia, earned a PhD in Art History from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1990. From 1981 to 2001, she worked at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, and later became the General Director of the Moscow Kremlin State Historical and Cultural Museum in 2001. - ONA
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