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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-53

Last update of repository: 9 August 2019

Muzei imeni N.K. Rerikha


History
The museum was founded in 1991, under the auspices of the International Roerich (Rerikh) Center (website: http://www.icr.su/), and opened to the public in February 1993, honoring the Russian artist, archeologist, and philosopher Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich (Rerikh) (1874–1947) and his family. Roerich, a graduate of the Russian Academy of Arts, was one of the initiators of the World of Art (Mir iskusstva) movement, before he left Russia. He lived with his family in India starting in the 1920s, and also spent considerable time in emigration in the United States. The museum is now located in the elegant columned eighteenth-century mansion in the Lopukhin estate within the Belyi gorod (White City) region of Moscow.
        Although the name of the museum honors N.K. Roerich, it also includes materials relating to his wife, Elena Ivanovna Roerich (Rerikh) (1879–1955), who was interested in philosophy, culture, and art of Europe and Asia, and their sons. The elder son, Iurii Nikolaevich (1902–1960), was a prominent Oriental scholar. The younger, Sviatoslav Nikolaevich (1904–1993), also an artist, was one of the initiators of the museum and arranged the transfer of his father’s paintings from India in 1989. The museum was opened to the public in 1993, soon after the death of Sviatoslav Roerich.

N.B. Additional papers of N.K. Roerich are now held in RGALI (B–7—fond 2408) and in the State Tret'iakov Gallery (H–44—fond 44). There is also a special collection and memorial cabinet exhibit for Roerich in the State Museum of the Orient (H–50). A memorial cabinet was established for his son Iurii Nikolaevich in the library of the Institute of Oriental Studies (E–10), after it acquired his rich collections relating to Tibet and Indian studies. Also of note is the Nicholas Roerich Museum located in New York City (address: 319 West 107th Street, New York, NY 10025; tel: 212-864-7752; fax: 212-864-7704; e-mail: [email protected]; website: http://www.roerich.org).


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted