Elizaveta Likhacheva commented on the appointment of the director of the Pushkin Museum instead of Marina Loshak

Post submitted – post accepted

It seems that the ugly resignation of Zelfira Tregulova, with whom the contract at the Tretyakov Gallery was not renewed, influenced the decision of the director of the Pushkin Museum Marina Loshak, and she nevertheless wrote a letter of resignation from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts of her own free will.

The fact is that not so long ago, information appeared on the network about Loshak’s departure of her own free will, allegedly on her behalf, although in reality it was a strange joke (fake, conscious misinformation?) Of a blogger that some publications hastily filed as a fait accompli. But this “rehearsal” helped Marina to tune in, and, without waiting for her to be asked to go out, to leave herself – with her head held high. At the same time, her post does not go to the “dark horse”, which remains for the art environment Elena Pronicheva in the Tretyakov Gallery, he went to a well-known figure in museum circles – Elizaveta Likhacheva.

There was no doubt that Marina Loshak, who headed the Pushkin Museum in 2013, would be removed from Pushkin Museum. In the current circumstances, it is unlikely that the Ministry of Culture would have dared to leave at the helm of one of the country’s main museums the mother of TV presenter Anna Mongait, recognized as a foreign agent and not shy about expressing herself about the course of power.

Anna has been on the “black list” since November; in February, Marina’s nephew, well-known journalist Andrey Loshak, also recognized as a foreign agent, was also there. Both left Russia. These family ties Loshak recalled almost every day in the last month. So the question of whether she will stay or not was not at all. And apparently, Loshak herself began to prepare for leaving almost immediately after the said joke.

In favor of this assumption is her decision to appoint the head of the regional branches of the Pushkin Museum (there are six in total) an experienced art critic, head of the Volga-Vyatka branch of the Pushkin Museum Anna Gor. This became known on February 15, two days after the “absentee resignation”.

In the meantime, the question was discussed at the top – who will take the place of Loshak in the Pushkin Museum. They nodded at Ilya Doronchenkov, deputy director of the Pushkin Museum. At a minimum, Pushkinsky’s employees would definitely have been satisfied with such an option. But it turned out differently – the Ministry of Culture offered this position to the director of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture, Elizaveta Likhacheva, whose contract was also running out and just ends on March 21. So the statement about the voluntary dismissal of Marina Loshak did not accidentally appear the day before.

We managed to contact Elizabeth just at the moment when she was leaving the Ministry of Culture, discussing the main details of her appointment there.

– For me, the main thing, – said Elizaveta Likhacheva, – is that my team is preserved in the Museum of Architecture.

(By the way, Likhacheva managed to start many processes at her former place of work: for example, the scientific restoration of the Melnikov House, which took five years, has recently begun. And only a specialist immersed in the topic will be able to bring the matter to a qualitative result).

– In connection with your transfer to work at the Pushkin Museum, who will be the director of the Museum of Architecture?

– They met me halfway, and its chief curator, Natalya Shashkova, will become the director of the museum, – Elizabeth told MK.

For another two weeks, Likhacheva will deal with the affairs of the Shchusev museum. But already on March 21, the Ministry of Culture will sign an agreement with her for a new position in the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin. And Elizaveta Likhacheva knows him firsthand. For the past couple of years, she has occasionally lectured there on architecture and led author’s tours. They are on friendly terms with Marina Loshak. Likhacheva has a reputation as an excellent art critic and art historian, she knows her business.

She worked at the Museum of Architecture for 17 years, the result is obvious – the archives are put in order, worthy exhibitions are being made, a modern design of the museum has been invented, and so on and so forth. The track record is decent. Obviously, Marina Loshak, having accepted the inevitable, made her own choice.

Marina Loshak resigned from the post of director of the Pushkin Museum