Mikhail Piotrovsky is the long-standing Director of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia's most important art museum.He followed his father in this role in 1992, having worked in the Oriental Department of the St Petersburg Academy of Fine Art. He has published many books, including My Hermitage, Beyond Palace Walls and Culture as Scandal. Piotrovsky has been invested with numerous orders and medals, both Russian and foreign, including the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan), the Order of Honour (Oman) and the Order of Honour (Russia). He was Chair of the Board of the First Channel of the Russian television from 2011 to 2005. Geraldine Norman joined The Times as a statistician in 1962, set up 'The Times Sotheby index of Art Prices' and worked as their sale room correspondent until 1987 when she joined the Independent. She began working with the Hermitage in 1995.
