A resident of St. Petersburg complained to the authorities about the nude sculptures of the Hermitage

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The State Museum Hermitage has received a complaint "from the authorities" that the nude sculptures of this museum are dangerous for children. The director of the museum, Piotrovsky, shared this information with the media. True, he did not specify which department sent such an appeal. Piotrovsky noted that the museum often receives complaints and sometimes very aggressive ones.

Mikhail Piotrovsky stressed that this complaint is one that simply cannot be ignored: “There was a time, I was laughing when I heard that all the nude sculptures of the Hermitage should be collected in one room and a +18 sign should be hung on the door. But today we received an official complaint, to which we have to respond."

Later it became known that a complaint to the administration of the northern capital came from an ordinary citizen, and Smolny, in turn, forwarded this paper to the Hermitage. According to the representative of the city administration, they are obliged to do this with any appeal of citizens and give an answer to the applicant within the prescribed time frame. Museum workers say they are not surprised, because such complaints often come from other bodies - from the Putin administration and from the Ministry of Culture. Sometimes you have to give answers to very ridiculous and unusual appeals. This is required by law, then they cannot become a guide for the museum to any actions.

The discussion of this problem has affected many departments. So, Valery Fadeev, who heads the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia, made a proposal to forward the received complaint to a psychiatrist. He recalled the story of 7 years ago, when Roman Khudyakov, now expelled from the Liberal Democratic Party, called on the Central Bank to exclude the 100-ruble banknote from circulation, since the penis of the ancient god is clearly visible on it. Then the deputy Khudyakov motivated his proposal by the fact that the image on the money violates the law on the protection of children from porn content, since there is no labeling 18+. The Central Bank rejected the proposal to change the design of the banknote.

Earlier, in 2016, one of the residents of St. Petersburg filed a complaint about a copy of the statue of David, which, during an exhibition dedicated to Michelangelo, was exhibited at the Church of St. Anna. Then the complainant was outraged that next to the church and school in the center of the cultural capital appeared "a man without pants." It must be said that the organizers of the exhibition reacted creatively to the complaint - they announced the launch of the “Dress David” campaign, within the framework of which they invited the townspeople to come up with an outfit for the sculpture. But in the end, David remained in negligee.

Child psychologist Irena Pokhomova also gave her comments on the complaint about naked sculptures received by the Hermitage in an interview with one of the TV channels in the northern capital. She noted that children may be surprised if they see a nude sculpture, but there will be no negative effect on the child's psyche.