THE MUSEUM OPENS ITS DOORS
Today the Museum of Oriental Art opens its doors at 12a Suvorovsky Boulevard.
The first display here is an exhibition of works by Rudolf Khachatryan, Honored Artist of the Armenian SSR. It contains about one hundred works: portraits of figures of science and the arts, and landscapes.
As the work in the house on Suvorovsky Boulevard is completed, the museum's principal exhibition activity will unfold there. Its former building at 16 Obukha Street will be used mainly to store the collections.
The new property is the celebrated "Lunin House." This town estate is described in many architectural guidebooks as a rare monument of "high classicism, or the Empire style." It was erected after the fire of 1812 by one of the most prominent Moscow architects of the time, Dementy Ivanovich (Domenico) Gilardi (1788—1845). The architect incorporated into the main three-storey building an eighteenth-century structure that stood end-on to the boulevard.
Later the estate changed owners, and its buildings lost their original plan and interior appearance. Extensive work therefore had to be carried out here by the masters of the Soyuzrestavratsiya association (the restoration project was designed by N. Sibiryakov). Specialists from the Giprotheatre institute took part in adapting the monument for museum use.
Today almost all the halls look splendid. The parquet floors and chandeliers have been restored, and the columns of artificial marble reconditioned.
I. KOVALENKO
In one of the museum halls. Photo by R. Slavin.
