31.05.03 18:20   Vladimir Putin accompanied the heads of state and government of more than forty countries, guests of St. Petersburg, on a tour of the Hermitage to see its treasures.

The guests first crossed the famous Palace Square on the way to the museum, passing through the arch over the museum’s traceried gates and the Great Courtyard, where two year’s of restoration work was recently completed.
Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky took the high-ranking guests on their excursion. An anniversary exhibition dedicated to Peter the Great entitled “The Founder of St. Petersburg” is currently on display in the Ante-Room, and the Nikolayevsky and Concert Halls, the museum’s three main exposition areas.
This exhibition is one of the largest put on by the museum in recent years and it features more than a thousand rarities. The majority of them have survived from the Petrine era and represent the life and times of the Tsar-Reformer who turned Russia towards western civilization.