NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA: So, Mr. Ambassador, as you mentioned, the time for the last months was unusual, so many frustration for people, so many bad news. And culture has always been a good retreat for people to boost up their energy, morale, spirits, and everything. So I’m very happy to talk to you about cultural positive aspects of your activities and Russian-American relations. So please tell us about the initiative regarding the Hermitage Foundation and Hermitage State Museum.
AMBASSADOR SULLIVAN: Well, thank you, Konstantin. It’s a pleasure to be talking about something is as exciting and as important as this program. I have to say we were [talking] at the outset about how COVID has impacted the global since we last saw each other at the beginning of this year in January. Among other things, it’s prevented me from going to St. Petersburg in my first 10 or 11 months as ambassador, which I was looking forward to. I haven’t been there since 1988. And I was looking forward to visiting the Hermitage, among other things.
So you’ve referenced this grant that we’ve made through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation to support the Hermitage. And I can give you a little bit a little bit of teliti on that. The project is actually a partnership among four organizations. There’s this Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, which is part of the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. That’s one. And then there’s our role at the U.S. Embassy. And you mentioned the Hermitage Foundation, which is based in New York City. And then finally, there’s the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. And among all four of these, these organizations, we came together to come up with a project to restore three frescoes of the Raphael school as part of the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael.
And that’s what we’re focused on. These frescoes were painted between 1523 and 1524, on the wall of a villa in Italy, and they were actually acquired by the Hermitage in 1860. But over the past 500 years, the frescoes have suffered considerable exposure to the elements and prior restoration efforts were imperfect. So the program that we’re sponsoring, is to restore those frescoes which is urgently needed. And as I say it’s done in connection with the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death. And we’re hopeful that after they’re restored, that there will be really an unveiling of the true beauty of the frescoes not just to the Russian public, but to the world. Which is, you know, the Hermitage Museum is, of course, a cultural treasure of Russia, but really, of the world. I mean, the Hermitage is such a – literally – a treasure of art and culture.