Mikhail Piotrovsky
Encyclopedia
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. He was born in Yerevan
Yerevan
Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...
in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic on 9 November 1944 to Boris Piotrovsky
Boris Piotrovsky
Boris Borisovich Piotrovsky was a Soviet Russian academician, historian-orientalist and archaeologist who studied the ancient civilizations of Urartu, Scythia, and Nubia. He is best known as a key figure in the study of the Urartian civilization of the southern Caucasus...
, a notable Orientalist
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
and himself the future Director of the Hermitage, and Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
mother Hripsime Djanpoladjian.
At the Leningrad University Mikhail Piotrovsky obtained a doctorate
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
in Arabic linguistics. After graduating in 1967, he worked as an interpreter in Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
and took part in archaeological exploration of the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
. After his father's death in 1990, Piotrovsky was appointed Director of the Hermitage in his stead.
Following the demise of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, Piotrovsky advocated the opening of the Hermitage collections to the wider world, which resulted in the establishment of the Hermitage Rooms
Hermitage Rooms
The Hermitage Rooms was the name by which a series of rooms at Somerset House, London, were known from 2000 to 2007. During this period they were used as a venue for temporary exhibitions from the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg...
in Somerset House
Somerset House
Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, England, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from 1776–96. It...
, Hermitage Amsterdam
Hermitage Amsterdam
Hermitage Amsterdam is a dependency of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg on the Amstel river in Amsterdam. The dependency is located at the former Amstelhof, a classical style building from 1681. The dependency has been displaying small exhibitions in a side building next to the Amstelhof...
and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum
Guggenheim Hermitage Museum
The Guggenheim Hermitage Museum was a museum in The Venetian, one of the world's largest hotels in Paradise, Nevada, located on the Strip in Las Vegas, USA. It was designed by Rem Koolhaas, opened October 7, 2001, and added three more collections and exhibits subsequent to its opening...
. His tenure was not entirely free of scandals, however. After the museum announced in July 2006 that 221 minor items, including jewelry, Orthodox icons, silverware and richly enameled objects, had been stolen by one of the museum officials, there were calls for Piotrovsky's resignation.http://www.gzt.ru/culture/2006/08/10/153002.html
Piotrovsky has been invested with numerous orders and medals, both Russian and foreign, including the Order of the Rising Sun
Order of the Rising Sun
The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese Government, created on April 10, 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun...
and the Order of Honor
Order of Honor (Russian Federation)
The Order of Honour is a state order which was founded by the President's Decree of the Russian Federation of №442 of 2 March 1994. The Order of Honour is awarded to citizens for high achievements in government, economic production, scientific research, sociocultural, public and charitable...
. He has also had a minor planet
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
named after him. Piotrovsky has been Chair of the Board of the First Channel
Channel One (Russia)
Channel One is the first television channel to broadcast in the Soviet Union. The channel was renamed Ostankino Channel 1 in 1991, after the Soviet Union broke up and the Russian SFSR became the Russian Federation. According to a recent government publication, the Russian government controls 51%...
of the Russian television since 2001.