Pharmaceutical company pledges to restore beauty at the Hermitage

The State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and the Hungarian pharmaceutical company Gedeon Richter have signed a letter of intent for a three-year project to restore works of art that relate to the concept of female beauty, underscoring the link between health and beauty. The multinational company, known for its gynaecological products, will start by funding the restoration of the “Gatchina Venus”—a Roman copy of a Greek original dating from the third or second century BC. The marble, which takes its name from the Russian palace, for the park of which it was acquired, was brought to St Petersburg in 1768. It was transferred to the Imperial Hermitage collection in 1886. The restoration of the Venus is expected to be completed by April 2019.