[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2257758080.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Council of the European Union announced on April 23 that it is formally sanctioning Mikhail Piotrovsky, the long-time director of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The reasons given are that Piotrovsky is \u201ca close associate of Vladimir Putin\u201d and that \u201che has actively supported and justified Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine.\u201d The news was first reported by The Art Newspaper<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the Hermitage Development Foundation, Piotrovsky succeed his father, Boris, as director of the state-run museum in 1992, which is around the time he met Putin. He has a background in Arabic studies and archaeology, and studied at Leningrad State University and the University of Cairo.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Piotrovsky turned 80 on Dec. 9, 2024, Putin sent him the following message, according to a Kremlin news site: \u201cYou have devoted your talents as\u00a0a\u00a0scholar, researcher and\u00a0organiser to\u00a0the\u00a0noble mission of\u00a0preserving humanity\u2019s unique historical, cultural and\u00a0spiritual heritage. Your many years of\u00a0fruitful work as\u00a0head of\u00a0the\u00a0State Hermitage Museum made an\u00a0immense contribution to\u00a0the\u00a0advancement of\u00a0museology in\u00a0our country, serving as\u00a0an\u00a0inspiring example of\u00a0selfless dedication to\u00a0people and\u00a0the\u00a0Fatherland.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPiotrovsky is one of over a hundred \u201cpersons or entities\u201d newly sanctioned by the E.U. related to Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Others cultural figures on the April 23 package of sanctions include Sergei Obryvalin, the First Deputy Minister of Culture, who has been \u201cdirectly involved in the seizure Ukrainian cultural property and its reclassification as Russian\u201d; Igor Solonin, general director of what is now called the Mariupol Republican Order of the Badge of Honour Russian Drama Theatre, which was formerly a Ukrainian theater bombed by Russia in 2022, and then rebuilt in order to \u201cspread Russian culture in the occupied regions of Ukraine\u201d; and Andrey Polyakov, director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Science, who oversaw archaeological excavations in Russian-occupied Crimea.<\/p>\n \n\tThe E.U. document elaborates on Piotrovsky\u2019s actions, noting that he has publicly endorsed the war, backed legislation enabling Russia to incorporate Ukrainian cultural items into its state museums, and has authorized the Hermitage to conduct excavations in Crimea.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/hermitage-museum-director-putin-ally-mikhail-piotrovsky-sanctioned-european-union-1234783105\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2257758080.jpg?w=1024″] The Council of the European Union announced on April 23 that it is formally sanctioning Mikhail Piotrovsky, the long-time director of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The reasons given are that Piotrovsky is \u201ca close associate of Vladimir Putin\u201d and that \u201che has actively supported and justified Russia\u2019s war of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1910271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1910271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1910271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1910271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1910271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1910271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}