Dresden Museum Director Offers Condolences Over Death Of Pushkin Museum's Antonova

BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2020) Marion Ackermann, the head of the Dresden State Art Collections museum complex (SKD) on Tuesday expressed condolences over the death of a legendary Soviet and Russian art critic and the president of the Moscow-based Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Irina Antonova, who passed away earlier in the day.

Antonova, who passed away at the age of 98, took part in making an inventory of the art evacuated from Dresden after the Second World War, including those from the Old Masters Picture Gallery, which is a part of the Dresden State Art Collections.

"The Dresden State Art Collections deeply mourn the demise of Irina Antonova, who died at the age of 98 in Moscow. With the death of that grand dame of the Russian art history and the former director and president of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts the SKD has lost a highly valued colleague, who contributed distinguished accomplishments in the interest of the Germany-Russia cultural exchange," Ackermann said in a statement.

This sentiment has been echoed by Bernard Blistene, the director of the Paris-based Centre Pompidou.

"The departure of Irina Antonova is a big loss, her long career at the helm of the Pushkin museum allowed her to become a cult figure in the history of Soviet and Russian museums," Blistene told Sputnik.

Antonova is a full holder of the Order of Merit to the Fatherland and winner of a number of other Russian and international awards.

The critic is said to have succumbed to the novel coronavirus in combination with other diseases.