Supported by
After Cutting Ties With Russia, a Hermitage Museum Outpost Rebrands
The Hermitage Amsterdam broke away from its St. Petersburg mother ship and will now be called H’Art Museum, presenting works from the Smithsonian, the Centre Pompidou and the British Museum.
Reporting from Amsterdam
In March 2022, a week after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Hermitage Amsterdam museum severed ties with the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
The decision was a “moral” one, said the Hermitage Amsterdam’s director, Annabelle Birnie, in an interview. But it had major practical consequences for the museum, which had been founded in 2009 as a kind of satellite of the Russian institution.
Without the link to St. Petersburg, the Hermitage Amsterdam was adrift, without an identity or art to exhibit. It had to reinvent itself quickly, or simply close its doors.
At a news conference in Amsterdam on Monday, flanked by international museum directors and diplomats, Birnie announced that the museum is now re-emerging with a new name and a new group of collaborators.
As of Sept. 1, it will be renamed H’Art Museum, and it will present exhibitions in partnership with three international museums: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in Washington D.C.; the Centre Pompidou, in Paris; and the British Museum, in London.
Advertisement