MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky has started "The Night of Museums" event on Saturday. The opening ceremony was held in a branch of the State Literature Museum - The Museum of the Silver Age - a TASS correspondent reported.

"Today, we are opening the 12th Night of Museums," Medinsky said. He added that initially the event involved mostly Moscow museums, but it has been nationwide since 2013.

Medinsky reiterated that this year’s theme is "Masterpieces from the Vault." According to the minister, the most part of collections in museums are stored in vaults, and visitors can see just about 7-8% of the whole collections. He noted that "in 2012, 4.5 million out of 89 million museum exhibits were permanently displayed, and now the figure is about 7 million," which means active development of the vaults.

The Night of Museums is an international event devoted to International Museum Day. It was first held in 1997. This is the only time of the year when people can visit museums at night. Russian museums and picture galleries are inviting visitors to special programs - exhibition, concerts, quests and creative lessons - overnight from May 19 to May 20.