Proposal to head the National Museum of Fine Arts (GMII) them. AS. Pushkin (Pushkin Museum) to its new head, art historian Elizaveta Likhacheva, received a week before the appointment – personally from the Minister of Culture of Russia Olga Lyubimova. Likhacheva herself spoke about this on the RTVI program “Chronicles of the New World”.
According to the interlocutor of RTVI, the offer to lead the Pushkin Museum was “an absolute surprise” for her.
“In general, to be honest, I can’t imagine a person who sits and waits for him to become the director of the Pushkin Museum. It seems to me that this is something strange. A week ago, that is, a week before my appointment, I was invited to the minister’s house in the evening, that is, not during the working day, and Olga Borisovna made me an offer. took a day to think it over and after weighing the pros and cons, I agreed,” she said.
Likhacheva explained the request to “think” by the fact that she had worked at the Museum of Architecture for 17 years, six of them as director. Meanwhile, the museum “has just plateaued, gained strength before a big leap and is now at peak capacity,” she said. At the same time, as Likhacheva admitted, as director she failed to accomplish several tasks that faced her: for example, problems with the new museum building and the restoration of the old , as well as with its permanent exhibition, remained unresolved. .
“In fact, we have only reached the point where we can start to solve all these problems. And then they offer me to go to another museum, which is much more powerful, older, more serious both in terms of the composition of objects, in terms of staff, in terms of funding – everything. In comparison, the Museum of Architecture is the Pushkin Museum of around the 1930s,” she added.
Nevertheless, Likhacheva precisely linked her appointment to the success of the team of the Museum of Architecture and the work done by its employees in recent years.
“The proposal to go to the Pushkin Museum, which, as many believe, is in crisis – I cannot say at the moment or not, because I am not yet in the subject, as they say, is the recognition of the team work, recognition that the Museum of Architecture – an incredible amazing place that has achieved enormous success with minimal external support,” says Likhatcheva
Watch the full interview on RTVI’s YouTube channel at link .
On March 20, RBC, citing sources, reported that Marina Loshak, who headed the Pushkin Museum for ten years, wrote a resignation letter of her own free will, despite the fact that her contract officially expired on April 2. Sources of the publication predicted that instead of Loshak, the director of the Museum of Architecture named after AV Shchusev to Elizaveta Likhachev. Later, Likhacheva herself, in a commentary for RTVI, said that although her contract with the Museum of Architecture expires on March 21, her appointment as director of the Pushkin Museum im. She doesn’t know anything about Pushkin, and she hasn’t seen “any other contracts or orders.” On March 21, the Ministry of Culture confirmed the resignation of Loshak and the appointment of Likhacheva in his place, as well as reported that Natalya Shashkova will become the new director of the Museum of Architecture. A month earlier, on February 9, the Ministry of Culture announced a reshuffle in the management of the Tretyakov Gallery. Instead of Zelfira Tregulova, who left her post, as the Ministry of Culture indicates, “due to the expiration of the employment contract”, Elena Pronicheva, who has been the general director of the Polytechnic Museum since the end of 2020, has was named to the top position.
