On Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov’s 175th Anniversary

Every year, the Tretyakov family commemoration evenings, organised at the national picture gallery by the Pavel Tretyakov Charitable Foundation, focus on a particular theme and characters. On December 18, 2009 the celebration commemorated the 175th anniversary of Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov. As the tradition goes, the closing part of the ceremony was dedicated to the oldest museum employees.

It was a pleasure to see that the event was held in a full conference room at Lavrushinsky lane. Among the Gallery’s guests were the following officials: Yevgeny Sidorov, member of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Sergey Garmonin, Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 1st class, Oleg Tolkachev and Alexander Savenkov, members of the Council of the Federation, Vladimir Platonov, Chairman of the Moscow City Council (who made a speech at the ceremony), Alexander Muzykantsky, Moscow Human Rights Ombudsman, and Yury Belyavsky, Chief Editor of the newspaper “Culture”. Irina Lebedeva, Director General of the Tretyakov Gallery, read out the address from the Moscow Government, signed by the Moscow city First Deputy Mayor Lyudmila Shvetsova.

The speeches of the participants and the film by the director Vladimir Venediktov, entitled “Brothers Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov”, were dedicated to the social and political activity of Sergei Mikhailovich Tretyakov as a member of the City Council and the Mayor, his contribution to the organization of Pushkin celebrations and the unveiling of the poet’s statue on Strastnoi boulevard, as well as his collection of works of art, his art patronage, philanthropy and charity work.

The evening ended with celebration of the laureates of the Pavel Tretyakov Award which, for the fourth consecutive year, was presented to museum workers, together with a diploma and a commemorative silver token, by Viktor Mikhailovich Bekhtiev, the Foundation’s President. In 2009, the oldest among the Tretyakov Gallery’s workers, Tatyana Kraskovskaya, a guide, and Natalya Sokolova, the curator of 20th century graphics, were awarded the high title of laureates “For professional dedication and many years of dedicated service to Russian art”. By a decision of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, the laureate’s title was also awarded for the first time to a representative from a Russian province — Nina Pomerantseva, Senior Research Associate of the Kostroma History, Architecture and Arts Museum-Reserve.