On 17 November 2014, the State Russian Museum and the Ministry of Culture of Chelyabinsk Region signed the Cooperation Agreement.

The Agreement covers routine systematic outreach activities aimed at making the most of the scientific, methodological, organizational and creative resources of the Russian Museum in Chelyabinsk Region.

Director of the Russian Museum Vladimir Gusev emphasized, that the relations started as far back as in the years of the Great Patriotic War, when the Russian Museum transferred more than 100 invaluable paintings to the Chelyabinsk Art Gallery for safekeeping. To mark the 70^th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Thank You, Ural! exhibition will be arranged in Chelyabinsk Region under the signed agreement. It is already known that the exhibition will be held in three towns and cities of South Ural: Satka, Chelyabinsk and Magnitogorsk. The visitors will be able to see about 100 painting of famous Russian artists some of which were taken to Ural during the war. The painters include Shishkin, Repin, Vrubel, Bryullov and others.

“I am glad that we have signed the agreement, because at the moment a systematic approach is vital. In addition, the support and understanding of the regional government is important. We hope for long-term cooperation which will include not only the exchange of exhibitions but also the work with people, telling about our history. The Russian Museum has the largest collection of Russian fine art. It is 4 times bigger than the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. This is a thousand-year history of the country in images, persons and characters clear and open to the people,” added Vladimir Gusev. He thinks that it is important not only to arrange exhibitions but also to organize a permanent branch of the Russian Museum in Chelyabinsk Region in the form of an exhibition centre.

Head of Satka Municipal District Aleksandr Glazkov made the following comments on the event, “It is not an exaggeration to say that Satka has a hand in signing of this historical agreement. For the last two years, we have been consistently building productive relations with the State Russian Museum with support of Magnezit Group, Sobranie Fund and the administration of the region. It is Satka that became the first small town of Russia where legendary paintings of Russian artist were exhibited. It is time to make a logical step towards new cultural initiatives. At the moment, we are working to make Satka not only one of three towns of Chelyabinsk Region hosting the large-scale exposition Thank You, Ural! Our next target is to open an exhibition centre of the Russian Museum in the town.”

To recap, the masterpieces from the collection of the Russian Museum – Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire by Ilya Repin and The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky – were exhibited in Satka in 2013 and 2014. The exhibitions were well regarded by the spectators

To read the text of the Agreement, download the PDF-file.