“SAATCHI ROOM” TO OPEN AT HERMITAGE MUSEUM

Charles Saatchi has agreed to create a “Saatchi Room” in the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, reports the Art Newspaper. The London collector is to provide a changing selection of contemporary art for a room in the General Staff Building, former government offices in Palace Square that are being restored to provide a home for the Hermitage’s collection of nineteenth- to twenty-first-century art. The move follows the opening on October 24 of Saatchi’s exhibition “USA Today,” which marks the launch of the Hermitage 20/21 project, an ambitious attempt to extend the museum’s display of post-1917 art. The scheme’s advisor is Sir Norman Rosenthal, exhibitions secretary of the Royal Academy. The Hermitage has also confirmed reports that Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull could be loaned to the museum next spring, although arrangements have not been finalized.