Peskov confirms plans to move Andrey Rublev’s fragile ‘Holy Trinity’ icon to cathedral, despite conservators’ fears

The Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov says that plans for transporting Andrey Rublev’s “Holy Trinity” icon from the Tretyakov Gallery to Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral have been finalized and approved by stakeholders.

Earlier, Tretyakov Gallery’s council of art conservators decided that the icon cannot be transported from the museum in its present condition and requires extensive conservation work.

Russian Orthodox Church and the Ministry of Culture are nevertheless planning to have the 15th-century masterpiece available to worshippers at the cathedral for two weeks.

On May 15, it emerged that Vladimir Putin had unilaterally decided to return Andrey Rublev’s masterpiece to the Orthodox Church. The decision did not factor in the conservators’ alarm over the icon’s condition after it had been loaned to the church in 2022.

Following an outcry over the decision that might result in permanent loss of the masterpiece, ROC’s Patriarch Kirill denied having ever asked Putin for the icon’s handover, claiming he’d only expressed a “modest wish” to have it loaned to the church.