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The Collection Inventory Project

The State Hermitage Museum Foundation of Canada Inc. (The Foundation) has undertaken a multi year project that will have a profound effect on the art world. The State Hermitage Museum has one of the most important and impressive collections in the world — rivaling the Louvre, the British and the Metropolitan Museums. However, the Hermitage collections have not been easily accessible to the world's art patrons. After raising the money necessary to coat the Hermitage's thousands of windows with UV filter film to protect its precious cargo, the Foundation tackled another "enterprise wide" project - the inventorying and digitization of the Hermitage collection.

Now four years into the project, thanks to funds raised by concerned Canadians, the customization of the Museum's collection management software is complete and new computers have been installed. The Registry Department of the Hermitage Museum is steadily progressing in the enormous task, daunting when you consider the variety and volume of the Museum's collections — the massive canvases of the Old masters and the Impressionists; the Roman coins in its impressive numismatics section; unique furniture pieces; carriages; jewelry; ancient Scythian gold; towering sculptures; magnificent ambassadorial gifts to the Czars and too many other treasures to mention.

The Museum has engaged extra staff who will be dedicated to the project. Inventorying a collection this vast is no small feat, as any museum that has gone through the process can attest. The record for each object must be addressed individually, including the description of the item, the artist, its provenance, the physical verification of its assigned permanent location and temporary location (if on loan) together with digital photographs to be added to the text.

The project will take eight years from its inception in 2002. When complete, the automated inventory will be a critical tool to support scholars, artists and the programming activities of the Museum — for example exchanges with other Museums. Once complete, through the generosity of Canadians, the Collection Inventory Project will open up the Hermitage to the art lovers of the world, not just to those who can afford to travel to St. Petersburg.
 

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