world. technology innovation all the latest developments around russia we've got this huge earth harbored. welcome back and this is all she ever chuckled the headline. the new international peace envoy is preparing to take his mission to syria but admits it's nearly impossible violence in the country is reaching new levels it's a match that at least twenty government soldiers have been killed in a mass execution by rebels. occupy entrapment revealed tuxes police infiltrate the protest movement in houston children activists with up to your crimes as undercover officers are part of a setup. and one of the world's most renowned human rights lawyer says he

won't stop until he's called justice for june and a song that we can expound on remains holed up in ecuador's london embassy while the fine is between asylum and extradition could. and right now explore one of the largest and oldest museums of the world russia's home to museum in st petersburg and talk to his director at me heigho petrol scales spotlight. good lumber taurine to mccurdy was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tim's mission to teach music creation why it should care about humans and work. this is why you should care what your only. wealthy british scientists are. that's not on line with.

the. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines kaiser reports. hello again and welcome to spotlight the show to find all the knob and today my guest in the studio. capital. russia's best known museum of the hermit that is in st petersburg as soon turning to hundred and fifty for what was just

a private royal art gallery there because now it became one of the world's largest and most food no music it is more than three million pieces of art from all over the world but only a tiny fraction is on display so when the birthday party begins what are we going to see is it going to be something new something very special we're asking the museum's director. it was two hundred fifty years ago the russian empress catherine the great purchased paintings from a german national that was how the hammock just story began the museum's priceless collection includes artworks by rembrandt the vinci care about you and many many others every year they attract tens of thousands of visitors from all corners of the globe and oriented just for you dr ross has been in charge of this for almost twenty years he's keeping up a family tradition as his father was in charge of the museum for twenty four years because.

mr petrofsky thank you very much for being with us so it's a pleasure well first of all. we're only talking about that in the tax collection we're talking about one of the biggest collections of art. pieces in the world is it still expanding and what are the new new exhibits in your collection well we certainly have to expand their image you have to access something so just recently we have what we've managed to find some money quite a lot of money out of the ocean silver service. eighteenth century french would belong to russian ability and it belonged to the lady the countess which is mentioned by pushkin they've all spades and so it's good that we knew all this with the names and the people who were fighting on the ocean did know this so

the price was a normal one not a rocket one so. do you continue to buy and is that the main reason for the reconstruction that that that the museum is is undergoing now because it has expanded knows we buy a lot more we buy something what is it the things don't need expansion but an extension but we have to accept it's not extension it's a project which is different from usual extension because real extension one building after another after another it's a big problem because first of all you don't have then you don't have money to keep it all and then really even a very big museum doesn't have enough art on the same level similar so our system is different we have a de nomic system which is called greater meter which has the main new clues of many galleries which we do expand and then we have the city of the public square with the ground and then of everything which we're very proud of the open storage

we have build one building six stores another one is finished and the third one now will the great irony terrace sounds to me like a greater london legs or clothing of them this is not exactly like this is a greater likelihood at the same idea of the same maybe the city and the suburb and the segment what it includes the cell the storage and we're very very proud of this storage where you can see all the collections and mass and people do visit it and so on and the next line or the greater middle centers abroad have the final thing is the internet google internet the you know the it's mostly the i.b.m. part and there is also google. well let's take a look at there has to be out there in the thousand museum in a report by support life. one of the largest and oldest museums in the world was billed as a private place for catherine the great where the russian empress could run to teen her guests and it was not until almost a hundred years later that the royal collections were opened to the public the

first two decades of soviet to lead to the museum losing some of its greatest masterpieces pressed for money of the government try to make up for holes in the budget by selling some of the country's art treasures rembrandt's palace athena was one of the pictures to raise cash it's made a return to the hermitage despite over to a buyer for in co action during the second world war a considerable part of the pictures were stuffed into two trains and transported to the euros during the siege of leningrad some of the museum buildings were damaged despite all the trials and tribulations the museum has continued to grow it now possesses three million items to see all of them you'll have to walk twenty two kilometers and if you spend a minute looking at each item it will take you a tease to see every piece of the hermitage collection.

we've started talking about reconstruction and better already it's a very very huge facility i mean they're in the task and as our reporter just mentioned but how will the reconstruction of your museum and of the adjacent palace square change the face of st petersburg well it will have our arrogance so we think that we are the center and we have the heart of the second city we change it and we what we wanted to settle the syrians to live in the richness of museums and for this to have our main stage is your been it stick. all of this is this is this is a very risky risky place to live in the rhythm of a museum or. one of the i would like to live in the real problem here with a very important issue which we are discussing mostly all we have to develop the city you can't live in this is you have to this museum is the most dynamic think our museum is one of the most dynamic in the world but in general museums are the

most de many then emic things in the world their own economy full of life full of different kinds of activities look at the metropolitan of the lore of british museum so so it's not a bad thing to live in the music but do you not be venturing into the young people who really would be. the museum is a dynamic institution they would see that at this scale of this dynamic museum or something you know just last week we opened one of our five musical festivals and this one is full of jazz and flamenco and so on in the course of all this is the palace and whoa young people a lot of different young people but we have a club for the students which is always fall and solve those of young people and students come and they started the contemporary art they do work they make some different kinds of performances so they do so they would buy their legs you know i would agree with you there being dynamic and up to date because because i know that in famous dutch architect koolhaas yes is is taking points in this

reconstruction he's known for being very ever guard so south will his contribution be pretty radical is he going to radicalize this this traditional thing the heritage the world around me is very radical but also he understands well what the tradition is so we were present it was really something like a recipe for and i was working in today's russia we have a joint work which is called project retires to solve for you that's exactly the one we're trying to treat as an aversive and the different ideas which have been developed with really one of the organised to go do you see the palace square and we open different ways of getting into the palace square to the general staff building where the first floor will be the city for room opening the way. here we are the smaller me. so it's all illusion of the people so the palace square becomes more and more involved in the retardant connected to the army and we will

arrange a different kind of events on the public square not the rock concerts which. again you talking about the power school but as far as i know power square is under the protection of the unesco so so do you have to get approval by the unesco to touch something outside the building new first the whole city of some put as work is considered to be unesco by the pool must be given by the russian authorities on by unesco and that's why we don't use you use the word world good or reconstruction you say restore asian restaurants ration because if it must be approved in many many many times what we are doing and we are the most careful people in this thing so this restoration that you just mentioned it includes a new place which of the the roi of the rural guard is museum could you specify what kind of restorations are going to be about the role guards museum. well first

of all he's here is another place which is called the general stopped building the east new ingle the general style building where we have been doing big restoration from the lawn of the world bank and we already have finished step by step the first stage of it so inside the because this will give you the idea what we're going to do because here is which are covered and inside there we have made this big stake case and here we have the place for the contemporary art for the impressionist was in the presence of the same idea for the for museum of the gods the headquarters of the royal guards is now with the military we are now discussing very strongly the possibility to open the museum of royal guards in the headquarters of discussing strongly with the military i could hardly i can imagine here discussing strongly. we go with the. this is. trouble from one big cabinet and other government from. the musicians all because we think that is extremely important guards our biggest

problem in russia in the military form and the spiritual level of russian army and we think that we can make a very good education not only for young people prefer the offices or the organs with mr overall guts twenty. two to two to get the milk on your side are the other some over the years some of them so it's the fight is still going to start with think that's exactly the place where we must work together with them to educate to present our military history not only military history this sense of being military. of the pride of being military of the all the contacts of . military officers which is a little bit forgotten to be. true like to be pathetic. and we have a very organized different kind of military sense even inside. the palace

square we have the idea well you know restoration we're going to restore the church to the manger. and you know with a can i start but our proposal is this and this church because it's inside the museum will be used only once for the church service says that there are ski director of the hermitage museum in st petersburg spotlight will be back shortly after we take a small break so stay with us don't go. please please please. please. please. please.

come back to this new was to dish in juice maybe a series of crap used to listen with the robot foster this evening while actively delving except the facts which affect all of us who put on this internet so much got to give a special welcome to all the ladies and agents from the n.s.a. a c o m i five glad you are listening in because today is all about sickness and how it spreading from the streets in swat modems as we speak laws are being tacitly written in to implement ways of controlling the expanse of dissent in it to keep us safe we told. her what else you could trust the government now the god of the doj you got nothing to worry about. the

body blah blah blah blah blah blah. walking back to sparta my time algor narbonne just a reminder that my guest on the show today is me hotel prof ski director of the hermitage museum in st petersburg mr petrecki you mentioned the the internet is being part of the greater heritage and i mentioned google well how did you react to the fact that google launched this so-called virtual tour of the hermitage which which includes high definition photos of our of the masterpieces because because this is sort of a copyright i mean i mean but what was your reaction to all the story first of all we do have virtual tours and army towers on the big side which was the best museum site in the world now to the second after the law resigned agreement as a b. and so we're doing creating. a website google care with the idea of said ok we do

have things but they said no we have definitions so let's try so we agreed and first of all we gave them the opportunity to show the realm of the prodigal son in very very high definition and this is there are no copyright for this we think because it's belongs to the old and then we made also the virtual to everything was good we announce that it is a killer and then suddenly we've seen that all google's virtual tools are sold on the i pad or the addition to the. in russian's other places so we connected google advocate active apple they well please stop it or they stop it immediately things begin to order it's this is a copyright issue somebody begins always to sell pictures which you would you give to the whole wealth to the people it's a general issue of corporate musical internet fields and internet art and internet but still we would consider for many years that it's extremely important to bring

out to the people through internet and then they come to the museum it's an hour they think you you you've been direct to the state of italy for years in yours. and i think it became pretty hard lately because because in the soviet times all you had to care about is as you said bringing art to people getting art closer to people but now there are many and now you shoot out a lot of those obstacles like the one with google that you're talking about so is it harder or easier to work in a market environment while you know i think it's the scene really precludes him because below along a lot of restrictions and no real relations with relations with all the world but they're restricted and so now at least now still ninety years and the director there quite a lot of freedom in making own decisions recently what we show how we show which when we work we do take money from who we ask for money from whom we refuse to take

money and so on and so so market economy it is pluses and minuses but i think we can we are accustomed to living when you have the state. near you because definitely the most money comes from just. the way sixteen billion rubles you got you got allocated to go home and we did with the money come from from all came from the government well it's not not here to get it it's what we ask when i showed this to the prime minister something what we are going to do this a very is it or good looks wonderful did you count on much my nobody. cares what he likes to say they're like if i like it out there it's you know i said ok for this we have all the money from the world bank of the minister of finance still the heart and fourteen police we have promise in the state budget if you are into the promise will be fulfilled it is ok for will to really we need all the money for the third stage of the storage facilities because we have done two of them and for second we'd also have money so we have part of the money we can earn part of the

money will find some of the money so with this this was always what we always do is sure we can give this a little give us something that a state museum says so so what you get from the state well ok it's donation when you get to the world bank is it a donation or is it a loan or what well you know. situation we changed a lot in the world the first time the world bank gave along to a country which was not connected was very economic restrictions well so you use it you earn money and so on the first term they give. loans for grants and then long story construction restore edition of the city historical city of simple is better so three dimensional as much as the world being gives the russian government gives and now with the changes of chorus or rates much of most of the money comes from the state of from the store finance but it's all together it's you bring people together it works f. about the money out i have to i have to learn some. things that really interest me

in one of your recent interviews you said that you are going to restore some old tradition of. the winter param of this somehow the are something that was held on the twenty fifth of december can you specify what we're talking about well first of all we are talking about how we use we're going to restore the main church certainly now you know the big debate is in russia how to use the churches rational of a church with everything back and something loose this was. you can't have services with the candles and they were thinking of the museum so a proposal is that it will be used also as religious ceremonies once a year and twenty first of december it's a very famous russian day it's a day of getting enemy out of national territory when the napoleons forces have been forced out so it was eighteen to a special event it well so this special day ended this day usually there was a special service in the church and

a small parade military parade inside the winter palace inside the can say the winter palace i mean indoors indoors yes indoors we do it from time to time you can certainly bring well not a whole regiment but who will so we do it even now we know how to do it so we think it will be a kind of a ceremony also maybe with. that here also one of the palace square because the fill a square is. perfectly suitable for military parades it's a memorial to the wars or any other question there are legends about the helmet cats that live there and there and that keep it safe from the rats that may spoil the collection and people say that those cats they descended from the cats that will kept by catherine the great is a true world that like one of them here is an orgasm in the sea this is not right over here and join us forming our microphone exactly. who never ever every day every day some journalists from all over the world will market well the two stories

one story is that in some of elizabeth's even before they brought from cousin should be good for catching grads so and well from this it was all on on and on and on from then i was telling someone that you know then you have the siege of leningrad and all the kids died with killed which is not true because people even kept some of the cats during the siege of the starving of living abroad and then in the time of perestroika when we had some cats and then people begin to bring kids from their homes to meet ours because world situation was difficult number to difficult so we needed a lot of exercise in humility let's show the people that we care for cats also and so we decided to take care of them and we collect money to feed them and now the important features also value creation of the commission of children and adults also. another question the power of school is often used as

a stage for big concerts or rock concerts for political meetings and all that. you are strongly opposed to do you think that there that the reconstructed rebuilt public square. that these sort of things should be banned yes exactly it's one of the hidden purposes of what we're doing. well if you want to make it unsuitable. because when you have a good program of what is happening there so nobody can get into this with some foolish ideas or some no the things also we have met once in your studio discussing this from the day we manage to put things into a certain limits everybody who wants to make a concert comes to me and we decide what will the program be what level of noise we measure the noise and so on and in a way it's still we had to have sometimes terrible concerts but much less than before and well if you the minute ideas if you want to do something called

a polar square you want a very short time quick something can take it when you have the most motorcycles you can come there for half an hour and then from there you'll start and go on with this model was another kind of motor started there's a thing in russia that's called the knights of museums it's a very nice thing it's a very good new tradition but it's but it's nice i mean terabit i learned there during this knights of museums. are not allowed into the main building or going to white years because we open the things we want people to come where they don't know we're all open our storage were up at the mention of this year we open the biggest submission from paintings from prada which was another middle but we'll see it in the evening but the main building because you know where there are going to think if you open your meter at night people everybody will come to a meter and they deal the nights of museums to bring people to the museums which usually don't visit and also we organize things on special dates for us is when we celebrate a three hundred one of us or some put as

a book or meters are open twenty four hours free and we had saw themselves tons of southern people inside the museum we know about what's really as last time we talked you told me bertram intelligence being very very theft proof well when was the last attempt to steal something from the habitat and what was that when it was something actually stolen well you know. it is like with the terrorism you know if you have. prevented nobody knows. you know the last it was a terrible big theft in. two thousand and six which is an inside. usually is and saw all the proof if somebody from your own stuff was in there and somebody is helping them from outside it's very complicated to think it but after this we still improved and improved things so that we're little bit of a police state you know. in all the holes but also in the storages of the corridors

and so on and so on which everybody including the stuff but museum is also all who is a risk always a risk because with the open something. things must be accessible so you know we've seen fit. to lot of money and a lot of people being in work a thank you thank you very much for coming and please keep up the good work thank you and just a reminder that i guess part of the show today was we hightailed that process director of that era because museums stayed here and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your part like where someone in mind to you think i should interview next time to drop me a line at our good old bad party tea party you and let's spotlight interact. with the first time caucus on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on our team and take.