The conservation team has embarked upon the final phase of the challenging comprehensive conservation of the gilded frame for the 1834 painting Death of Inessa de Castro by Karl Bryullov.  

This is the original frame in which the painting was received by the Russian Museum in 1897 from the Imperial Academy of Arts. It remained on display at the Mikhailovsky Palace until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in June 1941, when objects of art were evacuated from Leningrad en masse. The painting was removed from its frame, packed, and sent to safety on the first evacuation train out of the city, together with other Russian Museum masterpieces. The frame stayed behind at the museum, surviving the Siege of Leningrad. It was found in an unsatisfactory condition when the painting finally returned, and the decision was made to exhibit the work in a different frame. The original frame was relegated to storage, where it would remain until very recently...>   

  A massive conservation project that saw 20 paintings of the Belsky family of artists undergo comprehensive restoration has now been completed for the exhibition The Art of the Belskys, which opened at the Russian Museum’s Mikhailovsky Castle on 6 February 2020.

The exhibition was originally planned as a display of the works of just one artist, Ivan Belsky, and was to contain 11 of his paintings from the Russian Museum and 10 more on loan from other museums.

At some point, the exhibition curators decided it would be a better idea to introduce audiences to the oeuvre of all three Belsky brothers – Ivan, Aleksey, and Yefim – all of whom enjoyed fame and glory during their lifetimes, only to be completely forgotten after their death. The works of Ivan’s son Mikhail would also be displayed.

The exhibition’s list was enlarged accordingly, to include a total of 35 works – 20 from the Russian Museum and 15 more from the State Hermitage Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery...>