Grand Opening of Exhibitions, Dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of the Roerich Pact
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On October 8th, in the Museum by name of Nicholas Roerich the opening of three exhibitions - “75 Years of the Roerich Pact”, “Lopukhins’ Estate. The Past. The Present. The Future” and “Perishing Collection” - took place. They were timed to the International socio and scientific conference “75 Years of the Roerich Pact” and were united by one theme – the vivid importance of Nicholas Roerich’s ideas and the issue of cultural heritage preservation.
During the ceremony of opening Ludmila Vasilievna Shaposhnikova, First Vice-President of the International Centre of the Roerichs, Director General of the Museum by name of Nicholas Roerich in Moscow, observed that the anniversary exposition is distinguished by enormous diversity. The first exhibition “75 Years of the Roerich Pact” is dedicated to the history of the Pact’s creation, the second one – “Perishing Collection” - arises the issue of the Roerichs’ heritage preservation, and the third one illustrates the restoration process of severely destroyed ancient Lopukhins’ Estate, which in due time belonged to the Lopukhins’ family, one of whose members became the first wife of Peter the Great.
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Lyudmila Shaposhnikova dwelled upon the exhibition “75 Years of the Roerich Pact”, the tenor of which are the following words, uttered by Nicholas Roerich: “Destroyed by human delusion - restored by human faith”. The exhibition’s most distressing part is the series of photographs capturing the unique monuments, which have been destroyed recently in the course of combat operations in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The concept of the exhibition “Lopukhins’ Estate. The Past. The Present. The Future” was explicated by the chief architect of the ICR Irina Krasavtseva-Bayda. She have rested attention on scientific approach to the restoration of the estate – an architectural monument of the 17th century – which was carried out on the highest professional level by the ICR team of workers. Tatiana Ivanova, the head of the moving exhibitions department also made a speech at the opening of the exhibitions. She mentioned that several cultural and enlightenment projects, dedicated to the spreading of the Roerich Pact abroad, are being organized in Mexico, Austria, Germany. Expert of the same department Dmitriy Revyakin told the audience about the grievous fate of a part of the Roerichs’ heritage, brought to Russia by George Roerich in 1957.
Flaming and cordial were the words, uttered by the head of the Latvian brunch of the International Centre of the Roerichs, Marianna Ozolinya. In an essay form she gave an account on the history of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Riga, which was heavily damaged during World War II. This cathedral was loved very much by the Roerichs’ family. She also told about the Riga Cathedral, which has been included into the black-list of the hundred of European most neglected monuments: “Monuments are like children, like elderly people, they need our care, support, subsidy and love. Otherwise future generations will never know how spiritually creative were our ancestors and grand-ancestors”.
Sculptor Aleksey Leonov and director of the Museum of Children’s Art of Siberian and Far Eastern Peoples in Yurga, Nina Donderfer expressed their concern about cultural heritage.
The president of the Roerich Asociaciуn Darjeelling Agni-Yoga in Spain, the founder and director of the private enlightening Roerich museum in Spain Leonardo Olazabal Amaral presented the museum by name of Nicholas Roerich with some rare editions.
The red ribbon, traditionally stretched at the entrance of the exhibitions, was cut by Lyudmila V. Shaposhnikova, Director General of the Museum by name of Nicholas Roerich, and Alexander Fürst zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, Vice-President of All-European Federation for Cultural Heritage Preservation EUROPA NOSTRA.
The event was followed by a concert “The Pearls of Musical Heritage”, at which young musicians played some pieces by Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Sergey Rachmaninov and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Among the musicians was Luka Okrostsvaridze, a scholar of the Charitable Foundation by name of Helena Roerich, whose performance was a brilliant success.
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