Director of the Pushkin Museum Marina Loshak wrote a letter of resignation of her own free will. It is reported by RBC with reference to an interlocutor in the industry, in one of the major galleries. Business FM sources also confirm this. Loshak, according to some reports, should be replaced by the current director of the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Elizaveta Likhacheva. There is no official confirmation of this.
Even after the dismissal of the director of the Tretyakov Gallery, Zelfira Tregulova, in early February, information began to appear on telegram channels about culture that Marina Loshak might leave the position of director of the Pushkin Museum due to personal circumstances. But the museum then denied this information. Loshak also claimed that she plans to remain in office at least until the expiration of the contract. Her next contract ends on April 2, that is, exactly two weeks later.
Loshak has been the head of the museum for almost 10 years, during her time the site had many creative achievements, including international ones: from the first participation in the Venice Biennale to major museum exchanges with the same Louis Vuitton Foundation. The Pre-Raphaelites, the Muses of Montparnasse, Shchukin are perhaps the most high-profile projects carried out under her.
Of the facts that draw attention to themselves: in telegram channels and the media, earlier in February, they discussed in particular the fact that the daughter of Marina Devovna Loshak, Anna Mongait, has been recognized as a foreign agent since last autumn and does not live in Russia.
On Monday evening, secular telegram channels reported that Loshak was opening the last small installation “My room and a half” in the museum, namely in his director’s office. It is symbolic that the installation was opened on the day when it was 101 years since the birth of another legendary director of the Pushkin Museum, Irina Alexandrovna Antonova.
As for Elizaveta Stanislavovna Likhacheva, she, being a professional art critic, has been working at the Shchusev Museum of Architecture since 2006, and in 2017 she became its director. She declined to comment on a possible appointment. But, according to media reports, Likhacheva completes work in her old post this Tuesday, March 21. According to Business FM, Likhacheva’s contract was not renewed, she was called to Pushkinsky.
On February 9, there was another high-profile museum resignation – the Ministry of Culture did not renew the contract with the general director of the Tretyakov Gallery, Zelfira Tregulova. Elena Pronicheva, who had headed the Polytechnic Museum for the past three years, was then appointed the new head of the gallery. She is the daughter of General Pronichev, who was subordinate to the Russian border troops.
In the same days, the director of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg was replaced. 77-year-old Vladimir Gusev, who headed it for more than 30 years, became the president of the museum. And his deputy for development, educational and educational activities, Anna Tsvetkova, was appointed director.
Darina Alekseeva, the author of the telegram channel about the culture of Bakhchisarai Carnations, talks about the latest resignations and appointments in the museum environment:
“It would be foolish to deny that the foreign policy agenda affects the domestic political one. This, in turn, requires a reduction in risk on the part of cultural institutions, and this is more likely not about trustworthiness, the same Pronicheva is clearly not a gendarme of the Third Division – it is definitely easier to form relationships with directors in the new conditions than to break the administrative habits of old directors on the knee, sometimes not the best. We all heard about the scandal in the Tretyakov Gallery. Now a key shift is taking place, when instead of professional intellectuals, who are inscribed primarily in their social environment, whether it be a metropolitan hangout or scientific art history, managers are coming to manage the country’s largest museums. Personal qualities, as well as the political views of each of them, by the way, can be assessed in different ways, the main thing in them is that they perceive the museum as an institution among other institutions, and not as a place where some unique tradition is reproduced. But after all, such a technocratic approach bears not only negative, but also positive results. Everything will depend on the professional qualities of specific leaders and on how much they will still be able to elevate the interests of art and culture above all sorts of momentary agendas.”
There was no official announcement of the resignation of Marina Loshak and the appointment of Elizaveta Likhacheva in her place at the time of publication of the material.