Artwork historian Zelfira Tregulova, who led the condition Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow since 2015, has been forced out of her task. Tregulova told Russia’s National Condition Information that the Russian Ministry of Culture blindsided her early this thirty day period with a need that she respond by February 6 to a complaint brought to the ministry by a museum visitor named Sergei Shadrin. Shadrin accused the Tretyakov Gallery of failing to hew to the “traditional Russian spiritual and ethical values” espoused in a decree established forth by Putin this earlier November. Talked about amongst the values are “human legal rights,” “patriotism,” “service to the Fatherland,” “family,” “justice,” and “historical memory.” Shadrin cited “signs of a damaging ideology” as current in the gallery’s show, and further said that he left the museum with a feeling of emptiness and hopelessness.
Tregulova has publicly expressed negative views with regards to Russian officials’ rhetoric encompassing the country’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine in February 2022. It is not identified no matter if she responded to the demand from customers in advance of the ministry produced the decision not to renew her agreement. Tregulova informed the Nationwide Point out Information that she figured out of her ousting through the media. Stepping into her freshly vacated role is Elena Pronicheva, the daughter of Federal Security Company Standard Vladimir Pronichev, a superior-position military formal in the Putin administration. Tregulova is regarded as one of the world’s most proficient museum specialists Pronicheva has tiny encounter in the industry of artwork, having given that 2020 served as director of Moscow’s Polytechnic Museum, and ahead of that, as government director of the city’s Jewish Museum and Tolerance Heart.
Launched in 1856, the Tretyakov Gallery is thought of 1 of Russia’s most critical museums. The Ninth Moscow Art Biennale, which experienced been to open up there this past November, was canceled by governing administration officers times ahead of its start, stoking censorship fears. Adhering to Tregulova’s removing, an unnamed Tretyakov staffer explained to the Moscow Instances, “We are working with a regular Soviet way of working with objectionable artwork, allegedly by a letter from the men and women, which is supplied as an official motive.”