Society and Church: On entrusting icons, stored in Russian museums to the Russian Orthodox Church

The Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeev is convinced that entrusting of icons stored in the Russian museums to the Russian Orthodox Church will not cause any serious problems.

"The transfer of icons doesn’t involve so many problems, as it seems when reading the press", - said Alexander Avdeev at the meeting of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Mr. Avdeev provided a good example with the notorious events of the temporary transfer of the old icon from the Russian museum to one of the cathedrals. "For instance, the icon of the Mother of God Odigitria (Toropets) was passed by the common consent of the Russian museum and by the way the capsule, which was to transport the icon, was examined by the representatives of the Tretiakov Gallery and the center of Grabar", - informed the Minister of Culture. "Everyone agreed that the capsule, which was almost cosmic, provided ideal conditions for transportation", - added the Minister.

Addressing the Patriarch he remarked: “… in case the necessary storage conditions can’t be provided - you do not insist and the restorers do not recommend transferring”. "A case in point, today they consider the question of transferring of five icons from the Museum of Rublyov, but the restorers do not recommend to do this, explaining that the icons are likely to fail the transferring and storage in the conditions, which do not meet the museum storage standards”, - reported Mr. Avdeev.