Mikhail Piotrovsky Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, has responded to claims made by the London art dealer Andre Ruzhnikov that an exhibition held recently at the Winter Palace, Fabergé, Jeweller to the Imperial Court (closed 14 March), allegedly includes a number of “tawdry fakes”. “Any exhibition at the Hermitage Museum is a research project. Technical analysis of the objects on display is part of the Hermitage’s Fabergé research programme. It is being carried out with the owners’ consent. The results of these studies and of panel discussions are to be published later,“ Hermitage Museum’s director Mikhail Piotrovsky told our sister publication The Art Newspaper Russia.