On 16 and 17 May 2019, the Tate Modern museum in London hosted the latest meeting of the European part of the Bizot Group, an informal association of the world’s leading museums that engage in organizing international exhibitions. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the Director of the Hermitage, attended.
The meeting discussed current problems affecting exhibition activity, including the consequences of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union and its customs zone.
Another topic was the question of ownership of cultural treasures and museums’ policy in the face of a flood of demands for restitution and the redistribution of collections. Mikhail Piotrovsky shared the Hermitage’s experience in this area and stressed the need for museums, and not politicians or press columnists, to retain the right of choice when there are no legal obstacles to that. He added that in today’s situation of enthusiasm for post-colonial political correctness and the defence of minority rights it should not be forgotten that this issue also concerns the museums’ rights to the integrity of their collections and their defence. The museum representatives exchanged their experience of various forms of interaction with museums and the public in the countries from which many of the cultural and religious artefacts kept in various European and American countries come.
