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Printed from: http://petersburgcity.com/news/city/2003/07/15/scandal/ City news, 15.07.2003 11:47 Hermitage Director: poor knowledge of French caused paintings scandal
'The information scandal caused by the attempt to arrest paintings from the St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum collection in Paris burst out because of poor knowledge of French,' said State Hermitage Museum Director Mikhail Piotrovsky during a presentation announcing plans for the reconstruction of the General Staff building on July 11. He said that the stir began as a result of a poor translation of information sent from the cathedral of the Paris house of invalids where the exhibition 'St. Petersburg-Paris' was taking place.
A translation from French used the word combination 'legal officer' at the same time the cathedral of the Paris house of invalids attempted to get a private lawyer supposedly to represent the interests of the initiator of the arrest - the French association of holders of Tsar obligations, said Piotrovsky. There was no scandal about the incident in France. On July 10, the French association for holders of Tsar obligations expressed the intention to present in Paris court a statement with requirements to arrest the Hermitage museum paintings which were on exhibition at the cathedral of the Paris House of Invalids on the basis that they represented a debt obligation issued by St. Petersburg. On the basis of this document the association, which has been trying to receive payment for debts incurred in the amount of USD 394 million from the Russian government, decided to turn their attention to the Hermitage museum's paintings.
News source: www.rosbaltnews.com
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