The Tretyakov Gallery again lost the “Trinity”: the icon will be sent for restoration

On July 18, she will go to the center of Grabar

Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova said that the Grabar Restoration Center is ready to receive the icon of the Holy Trinity. The day before, she discussed with its director Dmitry Sergeev “the process of restoring Andrei Rublev’s masterpiece” and assures that a special room has been prepared for the icon with climate control, a gas fire extinguishing system, technical security equipment, including video surveillance. This means that the “Trinity” will be in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior until July 18, then go to the Grabar Center, and from there straight to the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. However, experts are sure that such measures are only “the appearance of finding a solution.” That is, in this way, the blame for the probable death of the monument of ancient Russian icon painting is shifted in advance to the Tretyakov Gallery.

“These are some kind of politeness, everything is clear and understandable with Trinity: the Ministry of Culture is looking for some kind of decent cover, as it seems to them, but it turns out obscene,” says Lev, doctor of art history, head of the department of ancient Russian art at the State Institute of Art History Lifshits. – Why transfer the icon to the Grabar Center, where there are no such conditions as in the Tretyakov Gallery? This is the same if, during an operation, a scalpel is transferred from one surgeon to another. For what?

– Good question. For what?

– The Ministry of Culture is lost and framed – and forced to make stupid decisions. Everyone understands that the “Trinity” cannot be transferred if you want to save it. In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, she has nowhere to go. For many years, the Trinity Cathedral has not been able to establish a temperature and humidity regime – the Rublev iconostasis is in a very unfavorable condition there. What is happening is creating the appearance of a search for a solution – a game for the public. It is impossible to talk about any restoration, restoration is the reconstruction of a monument in a form that is as close as possible to the original. All restoration work was done a long time ago – at the beginning of the century. Now you can only do conservation. Saving a masterpiece. Strange maneuvers are taking place now, because it is necessary to get out of the situation. And how to get out – no one understands.

– That is, with such a plan of action, we will inevitably lose the “Trinity”?

– Certainly. It is unlikely that this will happen as an explosion, although this is possible – it can explode at any moment. The boards are held on dowels, it is impossible to glue them, they have already tried, and it turned out that this is impossible. It must be kept in “diaper” conditions, in an ideal mode of constant observation. This is a chronically seriously ill monument.

– The Grabar Center has a strong department of ancient Russian art, there are good specialists, but they did not deal specifically with Trinity. How will a fragile icon feel there?

— There are experienced restorers there, but they did not work specifically with this icon. What’s happening? Is this a call to the Tretyakov Gallery – an indication that it was she who ruined the Trinity? She is to blame for everything, so we are transferring from one restoration center to another? When is a patient transferred from one hospital to another?

– If the patient needs specialized specialists …

– The best “specialized hospital” is the tempera restoration workshop of the Tretyakov Gallery, where there are people who have been engaged in the observation and conservation of the Trinity specifically for many years. They have accumulated vast experience in this monument. To save Trinity, we must leave her alone! Where she was in stable conditions, where there is an ideal temperature and humidity regime and regular monitoring. There is no other way out.