The Gallerie degli Uffizi of Florence and Moscow’s Pushkin Museum today signed a cooperation agreement at the Italian Embassy in Moscow. The first activity envisaged in the Agreement concerns the shipment to the Russian capital of some of Raphael’s most renowned masterpieces, some of which have never been brought out of Italy. The Agreement was signed by the director of the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Eike Schmidt, and by the director of the Pushkin Museum, Marina Loshak, at the presence of Italian Ambassador Cesare Maria Ragaglini. It provides for “the creation of a working group between the two museums to reinforce the dialogue and the two institutions’ knowledge of their reciprocal cultures, through shared experiences and common future strategies”.
Today’s event was an opportunity to present the exhibition “Raphael and the Poetry of a Face” (“Raffaello e la Poesia del Volto”), which is scheduled to open in exactly two months at the Pushkin Museum and run until 11 December. The choice of Raphael was not made at random also because, besides and beyond his international fame, he is an artist who had a great influence on Russian culture, especially on 19th century literature up to modern times. During a press conference, Ambassador Ragaglini emphasised the “exceptional scientific level” of the event, saying that “over the next five years, it will be the most important Raphael exhibition in the world”. The quality of the operation was also highlighted by the Director of the Uffizi Museum who said that “this new scientific cooperation will be used as a model for future joint initiatives between the two museums”. He said: “We signed this Agreement with the intention to revive the model of exchange and dialogue between artists that characterized Florence at the beginning of the Cinquecento and to jointly pursue a new road to research and cooperation.”
The exhibition is co-organized by the Pushkin and Uffizi museums, respectively represented by the two curators, Viktoria Markova and Marzia Faietti. Russian oil company Rosneft will sponsor the important event that Ms Loshak hopes will bring to Russia up to “ten masterpieces” by the Urbino-born master, including the Self-Portrait (which will be displayed in a preview at the Italian Embassy in Moscow on 9 September) and the Portrait of Agnolo Doni, which are respectively kept at the Uffizi and at the Palatine Gallery of Palazzo Pitti.
Ambassador Ragaglini said that the exhibition represents a “milestone” in the cultural diplomacy between Italy and the Russian Federation and constitutes the ideal follow-up of the programme of exhibitions dedicated to the great masters of Italian art like Caravaggio, Tiziano and Piero della Francesca. On programme for September is also the performance by Milan’s Teatro La Scala at the Bolshoi Theatre (10-16 September) and an exhibition on Piranesi at the Pushkin Museum.
