Resignation instead of an exhibition

The director of the museum, which canceled the display of the Faberge collection, was fired

The Tyumen Museum of Fine Arts, where an exhibition of a collection of works by the famous jeweler Faberge was disrupted, was left without leadership. The day after the official cancellation of the exhibition, the dismissal of the director of the cultural institution, Nadezhda Vaskova, was announced. The conflict has been resolved, but the reasons for the non-acceptance in Tyumen of the unique collection acquired for Russia by businessman Viktor Vekselberg remained unnamed.

Mr. Vekselberg’s “Link of Times” foundation announced its desire to show the collection to Tyumen residents in early April. It was proposed to organize the exhibition as soon as possible - already at the end of April. Of the huge collection, purchased for $90 million and including 180 pieces of jewelry and nine Easter eggs, it was planned to display 75 Fabergé items. The desire to show works of art in Tyumen was logical: “Link of Times” initially announced that the collection would be shown primarily in regions where Viktor Vekselberg has a business. The TNK-BP company operates in Tyumen, where he holds the post of vice president.

The Link of Times Foundation reached an agreement with the local museum quite quickly. Last week, the collection was delivered on a special flight from London to Tyumen. The director of the museum had already announced the start of the show, promised inexpensive entrance tickets (for schoolchildren - 40 rubles, for students - 50, for adults - 75) and advised buying them in advance, five days before visiting the museum. The tickets indicated the time of visit, and the museum itself increased its opening hours to 20-21 pm.

On Monday it became known that the exhibition would not take place. After several days of misunderstandings, it became clear that the problem should be looked for in the Tyumen offices. The Chairman of the Committee for Culture of the Tyumen Region, Evgeny Neginsky, accused the director of the museum of concluding an agreement with the “Link of Times” without agreement with the founders of the cultural institution, which is the committee. The official said that Tyumen could not host such an expensive exhibition - the museum was taking inventory of its collections. “I do not rule out that after some time the regional cultural committee itself will enter into negotiations with the Link of Times Foundation to organize an exhibition,” promised the head of the cultural committee.

On Wednesday, the dismissal of museum director Nadezhda Vaskova was announced. Formally, her resignation is not connected with the cancellation of the exhibition - she received notice of her dismissal at the end of last week, when the Faberge collection was already in Tyumen, but the termination of the contract with “Link of Times” had not yet been officially announced.

The notice of dismissal came from the governor of the Tyumen region, who refers to clause 2 of Art. 278 of the Labor Code, which allows you to terminate an employment contract without giving reasons. Evgeny Neginsky says that the resignation is not related to the Faberge collection - the reason was violations of financial discipline discovered in the museum during an audit by the Accounts Chamber. For example, in February it was discovered that 23 bronze sculptures by local authors worth a total of 42 thousand rubles had disappeared from the depository.

At the museum, a Vremya Novostei correspondent was told that the contract with Ms. Vaskova was terminated ahead of schedule - it expired only in August of this year. The issue of appointing a new director is currently being resolved. At the same time, the Tyumen intelligentsia is very upset by what happened - hopes for a rise in culture were pinned on the name of Nadezhda Vaskova in the city. During her five years of work at the museum, Ms. Vaskova created a recognizable image of an enlightened institution in the region.

Mikhail VIUGIN