The message reads, in part:
“These world-famous museum reserves are rightly admired for their palaces and parks, their striking beauty, harmony and charm, as well as for offering a warm and hospitable welcome to every visitor.
This anniversary provides us with an opportunity to pay tribute and express our gratitude to the many generations of museum employees who dedicated themselves to preserving our unique national heritage, and were genuine promoters and votaries of culture. Of course, the grateful future generations will never forget the truly heroic accomplishments by restoration artists, architects, historians and archivists who saved these invaluable sites during the Great Patriotic War and spared their museum collections from being annihilated, breathing new life into them.
Maintaining the tradition of sincere devotion to one’s trade is essential. You continue large-scale and painstaking work as researchers and art scholars, while carrying out inspiring educational projects and holding exhibitions that attract tens of thousands of people from across the world to Russia’s Northern Capital.”