MILAN, September 30. /TASS/. An opening ceremony of the cross year of museums was held at Milan’s Litta Palace on Thursday.

As Russian Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova noted during the ceremony, "in the new rapidly developing reality, in the enormous information flow which is hard to control and filter, it is the museums that are the reliable keepers of eternal values which shape human world view."

"Being aware of that extremely important role that the museums play in the life of the society both in Italy and Russia, we named our event not just a museum dialogue. It is not by accident that it is called a summit because the projects implemented by the museums, the museum space itself as a creative venue not simply complete the cultural calendar of both Russia and Italy but in many ways define the directions of cultural policy of our countries," the Russian minister of culture said.

Italian Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini emphasized that "all cultural institutions and museums in particular survived a very complex period." "We saw how gray our cities became without concerts, with museums, theaters and movie theaters closed. <...> I think that the pandemic will be followed by an increase in cultural consumption," he noted.

"We have a large exhibit of works related to Venice ahead and later the Pushkin Museum will head to Venice, this is a joint work of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and [our] Venetian colleagues," the Russian minister of culture said in response to a question by a TASS correspondent. She expressed confidence that "the exhibit in Moscow will cause a major excitement."

"We have about 30 major projects ahead but the most important one today is the museum summit," the official said.

She noted that during the meeting the representatives of cultural institutions will discuss in particular the support for small regional museums in both countries. "It is very important that such representatives of the professional community of global renown who come together today are concerned with support for the small museum space in each region in Italy and in Russia," she stressed.

In response to a question by TASS as to whether similar initiatives are planned in the future with other partners, the Russian minister of culture noted that the effect of the first year of cooperation with Italy will be evaluated first.

Her Italian counterpart reported that the events related to the cross year of museums will be held in many Italian cities including Rome, Naples and Venice.

On October 1, the delegations of the leaders of cultural institutions will visit the southern Calabria region where a museum road show will be held.