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Marina Loshak officially takes office of Moscow’s Pushkin museum director

The museum’s former director of more than 50 years, Irina Antonova, was appointed its president

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, July 11 (Itar-Tass) - Newly appointed director of Moscow’s famous Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Marina Loshak, officially take office on Thursday.

Loshak’s appointment was announced by Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky on July 1. The museum’s former director of more than 50 years, Irina Antonova, was appointed its president.

“The museum’s grandiose projects are very interesting for me. Few museums in the world can boast such different exhibitions,” Loshak told Itar-Tass. “Nonetheless, I think it would be right to further expand the spectrum, it will be good for the museum.”

“I believe the Pushkin Museum needs further progress. Not just changes but real progress any institution needs,” she noted. According to the new director, she plans to show the masterpieces from world museums that impressed her much.

Loshak was positive about her close cooperation with the former director. “We are not saying goodbye to Irina Antonova. She will stay with us and each of us welcomes her advice, her balanced opinion,” Loshak stressed. “The most important thing is that we want to develop, we want the museum to become better, more advanced.”

Marina Loshak, born in Odessa and a graduate of Odessa University, has had an extensive career in the sphere of museums, both state-run and private. She is viewed as one of the leading experts on Russian avant-garde art.

As of July 2012, she stood at the head of the Museum and Exhibition Association Manezh that embraces a number landmark exhibition centers and museums of Moscow City, including the Manezh exhibition hall right opposite the Kremlin, the Working Man and the Peasant Woman display area located under the world-famous Soviet-era monument of the same name, and Anton Chekhov's house-museum, among many others.

Irina Antonova, one of the grand personalities in the world of Russian arts and culture, quit the position of the director at the Pushkin Museum earlier Monday. She occupied it over fifty-two years, in the course of which she propelled the museum to worlwide renown as a center of grandiose display projects, remarkable classical music concerts, and education programs.

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