From the memoirs of Karetnikova about the director of the Pushkin Museum Antonova: The mental illness of her son is a tragedy at the center of her brilliant life. "Iron Lady" of Russian art

- With difficulty wedged into your busy schedule with an interview, Irina Alexandrovna. Everything is scheduled by the hour.

There is really little free time, but there is a lot to do. Somehow it so happened that now there is even more work than before. It seems to have moved away from the issues of administration, financing or construction, but a lot of other projects have appeared - scientific, educational. I'm interested. Plus, of course, there are exhibitions.

Of the latter, I note “Voices of the Imaginary Museum of André Malraux”. I did not come up with it, the idea came from France, we supplemented and developed it. I think it turned out very interesting. I personally knew Malraux, in 1968 I took him around the Pushkin Museum for an hour and a half. By that time, he had worked for ten years as the Minister of Culture of France, having accepted an offer to take this position from President de Gaulle, his friend, who highly appreciated Malraux.

He was one of the greatest writers of the last century, from the end of the twenties he repeatedly came to Russia, closely communicated with Pasternak, Meyerhold, Eisenstein. I still have Malraux's book with his warm dedicatory inscription. He sent the Anti-Memoirs a couple of weeks after his visit to Moscow.

- Do you have a large collection of autographed books?

Never considered, but there is. Gifts from artists, writers… I regularly donate these books to the library of our museum. Why would they be at my house?

Speaking of libraries. I read on the Internet that you are teaching a lecture course in the Dante Moscow Library. And is it strong enough?

I am happy to return to what I once left. I really like pedagogical work, I did it after graduating from Moscow University. These are not classical lectures on art history, say, from Giotto to Caravaggio, no. In a freer, more relaxed way. I always wanted to captivate with art, and not dryly state facts that can be read in an encyclopedia. I speak not only in the Dante Library. For the third year I have been lecturing at the Eldar club, where I was once invited by Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov. There is an amazing audience. A lot of young people come, which, of course, captivates.

- Whom do you consider young? From the height of the past, even 50-year-olds may seem like boys to you.

No, now I'm talking about those who are under 30. Boys, girls ... They listen carefully, ask questions. And my lectures are long - two and a half hours. You know, the hall holds up, no one leaves, no rustling of papers, no correspondence with friends on the phone.

For the older generation, I have a separate cycle, I lead it here at the Pushkin Museum. Two lectures per month. Tickets fly out in five minutes, but they are only sold to those who are 55 years old. So we decided. The cycle is called Le troisième âge, which means “third age” in French. Respectfully.

In youth, no matter how hard you try, you cannot understand what is revealed with experience. And words can't explain it. Just, as they say, experience for yourself.

- Do you often think about how many years behind you, Irina Alexandrovna?

You know, I began to feel the difference in milestone dates more sharply. With the course of life, ideas about it change, categoricalness disappears, and today I find that by the age of 95 I perceive the world in a new way, not like even 20 years ago. This is true. I'll try to explain. If a person leaves the sinful earth at 70, this is normal. My dad, for example, lived for 72 years, and my mother exactly 100. It was time to express myself, to do something useful for others.

Anything above 70 seems to be a premium, a bonus. How to dispose of this gift? Better smart. The compulsory program is over, free skating begins. And then all sorts of thoughts come to mind, sometimes even clever ones. There is a global attitude to problems, phenomena, people.

- Distant look, a little bit from outer space?

No, no, quite down to earth. The alluvial husk flies around, as unnecessary, what previously looked significant and important, but in fact turned out to be a candy wrapper, tinsel, disappears. The filter becomes tougher, the requirements for actions and words are higher. On the one hand, you better understand those who think differently than you, on the other hand, you feel greater uncompromisingness and certainty in yourself. Everyone has to be cunning and cunning at times, no one is without sin. But when you're 95, you can no longer say anything, or just honest truth. On another it is impossible. What kind of games can there be on the edge of the abyss? There is nowhere to retreat...

- Do you think honesty is the exclusive privilege of the wise with gray hairs?

No, but the fact is that after 70 the scale of values ​​is different. Less fuss, sweep away the excess. But you get something more important. I know cases when in old age people came to God.

In this sense, I have not changed at all, I remain a convinced atheist. You may not believe it, although I need to believe now: I'm not afraid to die. And not because she's so brave.

I don’t want to leave even at 95, but I see: passed big way, nothing shameful has been done ... In order not to poison the present, you can’t constantly wait for the end, think only about it. But to cling to life, trying at any cost to extend your stay in this world, is useless.

In my opinion, it is better to live as if you will never die. Not in the sense of relaxing and doing nothing, they say, then I will have time, but on the contrary - every day to take a small step forward in order to move even further tomorrow. I have no time to think about death, too much, I repeat, is not completed. Although I'm living the fourth quarter of a century.

I'm lecturing on portraits by Rembrandt, who painted a lot of elderly people. Old age is filled with the experience of life, and this can be seen in the paintings of the great Dutchman. After all, it is important not only to look, but also to reflect, comprehend. If you immerse yourself deeply in the world depicted on the canvas, you can even cry, becoming emotional. This is from the realm of strong artistic experience.

- Has this happened to you?

Many times! I am not a whiny person, it is difficult to bring me to tears, but sometimes I could not restrain myself. At sixty ... what year? .. I think in the 63rd ... Oh, how young I was still! .. Yes, so. I remember arriving in New York and suddenly learning that Vermeer's painting "The Officer and the Laughing Girl" is in the private Frick Collection. I didn't even recognize it, but I stumbled across it. I went to the Metropolitan and randomly turned into a small one-story museum nearby ...

By the way, I recently flew to New York and stopped by the Frick Collection again. I always go there, for me it has become a tradition. There is Giovanni Bellini, Rembrandt, Goya, Titian… Stunning works of great masters!

And then, in 1963, I was walking down a side aisle and suddenly I see: Vermeer. I have only seen his paintings in photographs. Small canvas. I can't explain why this work touched me.

An officer whose face is hidden by a wide-brimmed hat, a smiling girl from a brothel, glasses of wine on the table ... It would seem that there is no intricate plot, everything is very simple, and I stood in front of the painting in the Frick Collection and cried. From happiness. I discovered in myself the ability to transport myself into a world invented by others. It's amazing!

Immediately bought a reproduction almost size to size. She still sees me at home. Burnt out completely.

- And in the fourth quarter, a person does not lose the ability to be surprised, to express vivid emotions?

What are you! Not so long ago, Cambodian sculpture of the late XII - early XIII centuries, depicting a medieval queen, came to us. This is the Buddhist Mona Lisa in stone! I was stunned when I first saw this work in preparation for the Malraux exhibition. Lucky that the Musée Guimet in Paris gave it to us for a while...

Are you following your colleagues? How do you like the activity of the Tretyakov Gallery, which has noticeably increased with the arrival of Tregulova there? Are you jealous?

Zelfira is our fosterling, as they say. She worked with us for many years, she knows what the projects “Moscow - Paris”, “Moscow - Berlin” are, or what it was like to make an exhibition of Tyshler, for which they then hit me on the head ... In addition, Tregulova also worked with Elena Yuryevna Gagarina in Museums Kremlin.

She has a good university education, she is from our workshop and has become very strong in last years, but you understand what's the matter ... Zelfira is now to some extent repeating our path. What she does? He holds monographic exhibitions of artists who are loved primarily by the people. Serov, Aivazovsky ...

But then there was the Vatican. This is a glade Pushkin Museum, as far as I understand.

Look: in our country there has been an unspoken division all its life: the Hermitage and the Pushkin Museum - the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum. Here - world art, there - domestic. We were the first to break this rule. In 1972 the Pushkin Museum held an exhibition of the portrait. Then I, obsessed with the idea that our art is not appreciated enough abroad, decided to promote it.

I will never forget the reaction of Tanya Nazarenko, Lyova Kerbel, who saw Serov’s “Girl with Peaches” and a Renoir painting with a similar plot, portraits of Goya and Argunov nearby.

No one allowed that they can be compared! Dima Zhilinsky came up and said: “Irina Aleksandrovna, are you not afraid that we are losing against this background?” I answered that no, I'm not afraid, on the contrary - I want to show two ways of development.

By the same principle, we made landscape and still life exhibitions, where canvases by Russian and Western artists were hung out interspersed. Then there were “Moscow - Paris” and “Moscow - Berlin”, which I already remembered. The task was to show that we are the same Europeans and participate in the general movement ...

Therefore, Tregulova cannot be called a violator of the concession. At the same time, I don’t think it’s right that they made an exhibition from the Vatican Museums. It's not about jealousy. The question is different. To organize and carry out such a serious project at the level, there must be specialists of the appropriate level.

And in the Tretyakov Gallery they are not. The Vatican is not their subject. After all, there are Melozzo da Forli, and Caravaggio ... You see, it’s not enough to hang masterpieces on the walls, you need to know exactly what you want to say.

- But the people were breaking, the tickets were crushed.

What people are breaking into is a completely different problem. To us huge queues stood on eight paintings by Raphael, although what we showed cannot be called an exhibition. A random selection that our team did not even prepare.

The canvases were picked up by the Italian ambassador to Russia. Five portraits, one composition, drawing and “Madonna and Child”… A completely meaningless combination, early works created before Rome, only Florence, Perugia and Urbino. There are no such exhibitions. But people were excited.

There are exhibitions of one painting, as we once did Olympia. There one can see a thought, an image of a naked female nature, which has been transformed through the centuries.

- Did you go to the Tretyakov Gallery to the Vatican?

Of course. You see, the Vatican museums are very peculiar. There they select thematically and buy works that are consonant with them. Therefore, the preparation of the exhibition must be especially careful.

For example, the Tretyakov Gallery brought Caravaggio's "The Entombment" - this painting was relatively recently with us as part of an exhibition of a brilliant Italian. It included eleven works that we were specifically looking for. And we presented Titian like this ...

Just do not think that I teach colleagues. I express my opinion, to which I am entitled.

- With the fact that the Tretyakov Gallery has learned to correctly PR, I believe you will not argue?

Undoubtedly. But that's a plus, not a minus. It's funny - all the main paintings by Serov hang in permanent exhibition galleries, but no one breaks into them, does not go crazy, does not specifically take a queue from the night. You need to be able to organize the process in such a way that people are interested. Correct PR - important element, an effective tool.

No, Zelfira is doing everything right, the programs of the Tretyakov Gallery are being viewed well today. Let's see what happens next. Time is changing. Museums are overloaded with large-scale, colossal compositions - both picturesque and sculptural. We must look for new forms and means. Now we are at a turning point. It is important not to miss the moment.

Unfortunately, on the example of our museum I see that there is an obvious exhibition devaluation.

- Explain, Irina Aleksandrovna.

We grab everything we can. In this sense, Zelfira is much more consistent. She chooses, forms the agenda, and we have the elements: they offered - they took it. There are a lot of absolutely unnecessary, superfluous exhibitions. Their number is overwhelming. 40 exhibitions a year, 50… Where are so many? No serious museum in the world does this. Three or four major exhibitions is the norm.

- Is this a pebble of the president of the Pushkin Museum in the garden of the director of the museum?

No, I openly state my position, all my colleagues know it. And with Marina Loshak, we have repeatedly discussed this topic. In my opinion, a certain role is played by the preliminary training of the leader. Marina Devovna is a philologist, literary critic, who for many years headed galleries and never worked in museums. Still, there is another specificity.

The gallery practically does not carry out educational functions, it can afford to show everything in the expectation that someone will peck at something. You came, you looked and you left. And a museum is, first of all, a choice, starting with what is purchased and ending with what is shown.

Therefore, I say bluntly that we made several completely insignificant exhibitions. If the artist himself is still tolerable, then how he takes root in the museum space is unacceptable. There is no living place left in the Pushkin Museum now. All halls in all three rooms are used for exhibitions. It is not right. We have a different mission.

The saddest thing is that the museum does not discuss the results of what is being done, what we have achieved in the end, how the public reacts to everything, what it thinks about us.

- And what is included in the presidential duties? Is this an honorary position for services to the fatherland?

In no case. In my competence - the concept of the development of the museum, external functions, including representation abroad. In 2016, my contract was extended for another three years. For three? Let's see…

I'll digress for a moment and tell you an almost anecdotal story. I recently received new driver license to replace old ones that have expired. I automatically took the card without even looking at the date. Then she looked and was stunned: they were discharged until 2025. No one bothered to ask my age, how old I would be in eight years. I laughed so hard!

Are you still driving?

Well, of course! And why else would you re-register the rights? Frankly, I have a company car, but on weekends I drive myself. And to the theater in the evenings. The driver does not have to wait.

- Do you use an automatic transmission?

No, mechanics. Perennial habit. The automatic machine has been in my head for a long time ... But let's get back to the problems of the museum. On March 20, the Academic Council of the Pushkin Museum is to be held, at which I am going to make a report and state how I see the future of the museum. I asked them not to give a damn about my 95th birthday and to say what people really think. Serious conversation and the analysis of the current situation will be the best gift for me.

I don't want to go to another world without completing what seems important to me. It is necessary to implement a project to create a museum campus, which Ivan Tsvetaev spoke about back in 1898. I revived his idea. Now we have 11 buildings, and in total - 28 buildings. And the money allocated by order of Vladimir Putin has not gone away. The process is progressing, but slower than originally planned.

I will speak at the academic council about the Museum of New Western Art, destroyed in 1948 by order of Joseph Stalin. This museum, created from the collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, must be returned to Moscow. Here is my main goal. I was still a student there.

Today, probably, there are no living witnesses left, and the outstanding Soviet art historian Mikhail Alpatov led us, first-year students, to the building on Prechistenka, and I began to go there. Even thesis I was going to write about Van Gogh, but I was dissuaded by suggesting that I take a neutral and harmless topic about Veronese.

I am convinced that justice will prevail and the unique, one-of-a-kind museum will be revived. There is no statute of limitations for such cases. This must surely happen. Even without me.

- Do not promise, Irina Alexandrovna.

I have no illusions. It's not in my nature. Yes, I live a long time, but I'm not going to live forever. Life has meaning as long as the head works and eats physical forces to take care of yourself. A terrible punishment when you turn into a burden for others. God forbid!

But I can honestly tell you: I like my age. I just miss my husband, who left more than five years ago. We met Yevsey Iosifovich in 1945, got married two years later. How I would like to talk to him now on a variety of topics, from the latest events in the art world to the election of Trump as president! We had a special, trusting relationship. Still, 64 years together is a long time.

- Maybe you'll meet again.

Such a thought is good and comforting to those who believe. And I told you that I did not change my attitude towards religion. It can not be imitated, as well as a feeling of happiness. It will not work, the falsehood will immediately catch your eye.

Maybe she would change her mind if someone visited the next world, returned and told how it was there. At least one was sent there, obliged to return. But I haven't come across them yet. That's why I live here and now. Like, in fact, everyone else, but everyone puts their own meaning into it.

For some, a palace with 60 rooms is important, but a four-room apartment was enough for us: one for my husband, one for my mother, one for me and one for my son. Mom and husband left, Boris and I were left alone, now we even have a lot of this space. True, the old, aged cat Perseus still lives with us, in common parlance - Peach.

A very rare specimen of color point. Absolutely white, with red ears and tail tip. A wondrous creature, completely astral. Peach clearly has a connection with the cosmos, I believe in it. He will turn 18 on August 5. By cat standards, probably my age ...

Interviewed by Andrei Vandenko

I, like many of you, love, respect and admire this wonderful ascetic woman very much. Today is her birthday! May God bless her for many years to come!

"Commander of Literature and Arts" is a French order, which was awarded to Irina Aleksandrovna Antonova for her selfless service to museum work. And she really is Commander - in the highest sense of the word. Infinitely devoted to his work, implacable and uncompromising warrior, to whom we owe the incredible richness of the life of one of major museums Russia - State Museum Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin.

“Until now - I say without any coquetry - I'm not sure about the choice of profession, - says Irina Alexandrovna. - Until now, it seems to me that in some business I could be more effective and more satisfied with myself ... I do not consider myself happy man, I'm not complaining. I had moments of the brightest, stellar happiness. Happiness that arose from contact with the most interesting people or with works of art.

Irina Alexandrovna also vividly and emotionally tells about how she first saw her future husband, Yevsey Rotenberg, about her relationship with Viktor Nikitovich Lazarev and Boris Robertovich Vipper, Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter and Marc Chagall, and, of course, about her Museum ... "I I just did what I was sure of: this is how it should be done.

Academician Russian Academy Education, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, Doctor of the Russian State humanitarian university, Honored Art Worker of Russia, member of the Presidential Council for awarding State Prizes.I.A. Antonova - active public figure, makes a significant contribution to the development of cultural ties with foreign countries. Member International Council Museums (for 12 years - Vice-President, since 1992 - Honorary Member), for 6 years - President of the International Committee for Educational Work.

In 1945 - graduated from the Moscow State University them. M. V. Lomonosov, in 1949 - graduate school. Art historian, specialist in the field Italian art the Renaissance.

Since April 1945 he has been working at the Pushkin Museum as a researcher. Since 1961 - director of the museum.
Author of about 80 publications (catalogues, articles, albums, television programs, scripts for popular science films). For many years he has been teaching (at the art history department of Moscow State University, at the Institute of Cinematography, in the auditorium of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, at the Institute of Oriental Languages ​​in Paris).
I. A. Antonova is one of the leading museum figures in Russia:
- in 1974, under her leadership, a radical reorganization of the museum's exposition was carried out;
- in 1994 she opened a new department of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts - the Museum of Private Collections Donated to the State;
- in 1996 opened the Educational Art Museum named after I.V. Tsvetaev, which is deployed in the building of the Russian State University for the Humanities. This department of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts was created on the basis of museum collections of sculpture casts ancient world, Middle Ages and Renaissance;
- in 1998, on the initiative of I. A. Antonova, the “Hall of the History of the Museum” was opened, the exposition of which introduces milestones addition of museum collections. Here are grouped materials on the background of the museum, its construction and the main creators. The exposition shows how the educational museum of casts gradually turned into a real treasury of world art;
- in 1998, I. A. Antonova created another department of the museum - the Museum-apartment of Svyatoslav Richter.
I. A. Antonova acted as the organizer of a number of major international exhibitions, including "Moscow - Paris", "Moscow - Berlin", "Cezanne and the Russian avant-garde".

Since 1967, on the initiative of I. A. Antonova, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts annually hosts Wipper Readings - scientific conferences in memory of the former scientific director of the museum, Professor B. R. Vipper.

Significant contribution to artistic life Russia was "December Evenings" - a unique festival of arts, held annually since 1981. The idea of ​​the festival belonged to I. A. Antonova and S. T. Richter. Its peculiarity is the unification within the same space and time of plastic and musical arts. Since 1997, after the death of the great musician, these evenings have been called the December Evenings of Svyatoslav Richter.

Irina Aleksandrovna was born on March 20, 1922 in Moscow. Father
- Antonov Alexander Alexandrovich. Mother - Antonova Ida Mikhailovna. Spouse - Evsei Iosifovich Rotenberg, art critic, doctor of sciences, works at the Institute of the History of Art History as the head of the sector. Son - Boris.

Irina grew up in a family where everyone loved art, music, literature, theater. Mom graduated from the Kharkov Conservatory in piano, but could not realize herself professionally - she interfered Civil War. My father was from St. Petersburg, was an active participant in the revolution, a party member with pre-revolutionary experience, worked as an electrician on a ship. His life turned out in such a way that he found himself in another business: he became a glass master, and later - director of the Institute of Experimental Glass. At the same time, he was very fond of the theater and in his younger years even played in the play “At the Bottom” by M. Gorky in the same theater, in the troupe of which the then-famous actor Skorobogatov was a member. He loved to visit theaters, operas, ballets with his daughter.
In 1929, my father was sent to work in Germany. Irina lived there with her parents until 1933. During this time she mastered German. Having studied it, I read Goethe, Heine, Schiller in the original. Immediately after the Nazis came to power, the Antonov family left for the Union. At school, Irina studied well, the exact sciences were especially good. She even wanted to enter the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, but her love for art turned out to be stronger, and I. Antonova became a student at IFLI. This university lasted only seven years, but many outstanding artists came out of its walls. With the outbreak of war, the university was closed, and the faculties were attached to Moscow State University. So, after studying at IFLI for about a year, Irina became a university student. During the war, she took nursing courses, worked in a hospital. In 1945 she graduated from the university and was invited to work at the A.S. Pushkin. Then he had a graduate school in which Irina studied. The area of ​​her scientific research was the art of Renaissance Italy.

Irina Antonova is fluent in German, French and Italian as well as some English. She loves theater, ballet, music. He especially singles out Chopin, Wagner, Mahler, among the vocalists he prefers Montserrat Caballe. Favourite hobby since childhood - reading books (classical and modern). He loves both poetry and prose, especially appreciates Astafiev, Solzhenitsyn, Akhmadulina, Bitov.

Among her addictions is driving a car, which she has been driving since 1964. As Irina Aleksandrovna herself says, “not my house, but - my car is my fortress”, meaning that a car is a closed space in which you can relax alone with yourself, think, dream while on the road, which is very important for a person whose work is connected with constant communication with a large number of people. Enjoys swimming.

I cannot but cite here one of the many interviews of Irina Aleksandrovna.

"I think that I am a person of the 30s. The Museum of World Art gives every person who works in the museum for a long time a special inner dimension…" - Irina Alexandrovna Antonova.

I suddenly thought that the line of my life might seem to you too straight and therefore boring and not very interesting. It so happened that I was born in Moscow, graduated from school, entered IFLI - there was such a wonderful Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History, which was soon merged with the University. Then I went to work at the Museum, as it turned out, for life. I got married - and it also turned out to be for life. I never dyed my hair, that is, I did not try to change my external image. Perhaps this indicates a lack of any imagination. And I would say more than that: somewhere at the turn of childhood and adolescence, some kind of life foundations arose, which, as I now understand, have remained with me for the rest of my life. People sometimes say about themselves: “I am a sixties”, “I am a seventies”. I think I am a 30s person. It's very complicated hard time, but this is a time of fears and a time of ideals, as this does not contradict one another. Moreover, I'm probably a person who comes even from the 20s. And in this sense, I’ll tell you right away, somewhere I understand very well and share the ideals with which the October Revolution was made. I think these are eternal ideals: equality, brotherhood - for people who make revolutions - bourgeois French Revolution, and the October Revolution, which is incorrectly called a "coup" because it was a revolution - and I am convinced of this primarily by the art and culture of this time. Therefore, for me, among those high figures of the 20th century who created the 20th century not only in our country, but also in the world, there remains Blok, and Gorky, and Mayakovsky, and Kandinsky, and Rodchenko, and Malevich, and, of course, Meyerhold, and Eisenstein in cinema.
My whole life was connected with the Museum, and I do not regret it. I think that the museum is a fantastic creation, it is an amazing organism, especially the museum where I work - the museum of world art, where the whole world passes in front of you. world history art from ancient egypt and ending with today. This gives every person who works in a museum for a long time, it seems to me, a special inner dimension: he relates himself to the whole world.
By upbringing, of course, I am an internationalist and always have been. And if I hadn't been so small in the 30s, I probably would have gone to fight in Spain. The fact that I ended up in this museum turned out to be quite organic for me, according to the way I was formed in childhood, which is probably why I stayed in the museum for the rest of my life.

Are you a sentimental person?

Yes, probably, but not sentimental. This is how I was brought up - such a circle of reading in childhood - I read a lot of romantic German literature- both Schiller and Goethe. And I read a lot of Pushkin and Lermontov precisely in a romantic sense. And I think that some romanticism has remained.

Then another question. How do you combine such qualities as sentimentality, romance, with the management of such a gigantic empire?

I started at the museum as a junior researcher, then just a researcher, then a senior researcher, but I never held administrative positions, and then suddenly immediately became a director. At the time when I studied at the University, there was an absolutely wonderful professorial staff - Mikhail Alpatov, Viktor Lazarev, Boris Vipper - wonderful scientists and the pride of our science. And Boris Robertovich Vipper for many years was the museum's deputy director for science. And when our old director Alexander Ivanovich Zamoshkin retired (he had a stroke), it was then that Vipper and Andrey Guber actually recommended me for the post of director. This confused me, I came to them and said: “Boris Robertovich, how can I - you are in my subordination, and I am the director. It's just an impossible situation." He answered me literally like this: “Possible, possible, we decided it.” Such an unexpected transition from one state to another has led to the fact that I still do not feel like an official and do not feel like an administrator. As for the need for a firm hand, it is perhaps something in character that has been gradually developed.

In the years of stagnation, your museum thundered no less than the Taganka Theater. It was a window to the world. All of Moscow rushed to Pushkin to see the masterpieces from the Prado, from Vienna. It was probably not easy to be able to break through. How did you do it?

We made exhibitions that seemed to be impossible. In 1963 we made an exhibition of Fernand Léger. At that time it was "bourgeois, formalistic art", as it was characterized. We did exhibitions of Tyshler - in 1966, he did not exhibit, but we nevertheless did an exhibition. In 1981 we made an exhibition "Moscow - Paris", where we went to see not so much French art as Kandinsky, Filonov, even Petrov-Vodkin, who were not shown. That is, something that for decades has not been shown either in the Tretyakov Gallery, or in the Russian Museum, or in other places. Of course, there was a well-known merit of the museum, of course.
But now, when I evaluate that time, I still think: why were we allowed to do this, just like Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov. If you like, it was also politics. Several institutions have been chosen to let off steam to a certain extent, so to speak.
There was such a case. When the exhibition "Moscow - Paris" was held at the Pompidou Center, and I was in organizing committee, we gathered in Moscow, and the question arose where to do the exhibition in Moscow. The then director of the Tretyakov Gallery said: "Only over my corpse," the director of the exhibition department of the Academy of Arts said: "Never in the world." I said there would be no need for corpses and we would do it. And it was our decision, but, in principle, the exhibition had to be done, and those who agreed to this project from the very beginning understood this. But, probably, the Pompidou Center did not experience what we experienced. Literally every day from the department of the Central Committee of the party there was a call in the morning: “How is your balance?” You may not even understand it, but it was about the balance of modernists and realists, formalists and realists. Continuously every day someone came and said: “Well, what have you done, what have you hung up, take this away, and hang this up.” I was the commissar of this exhibition from the Soviet side, there was a lot of pressure, but in the end I already went berserk. But those who saw the exhibition, saw the catalog - they understand that everything was in place. And, of course, the exhibition was interesting case... At the very end, when the exhibition was over, Brezhnev came from the Politburo, there were especially two active people who told me categorically that it was impossible for Brezhnev to show Kandinsky, Filonov, Chagall. You need to get past him somehow. But it is impossible to do this with all the desire, because the halls go one after another, so I showed absolutely everything. And the last thing - we went into the White Hall of the museum - it was the Hall of the Revolution - with posters, with Rodchenko, with Malevich, with Tatlin, but there on the walls there was a work by Alexander Gerasimov "Portrait of Lenin on the podium." Leonid Ilyich knew this work, he was very happy to see something familiar, and wrote a wonderful review in the Guest Book, after which we felt somehow cheered up.

Who did you dream of being as a child?

I really wanted to be a ballerina, if not in the theater, then at least on a horse in the circus. I loved and love the circus. I think the most amazing people work in the circus. Those who cannot imitate either work or anything else - everything must be done, otherwise you will die. For a while, I wanted to be a physicist, and I was even going to enter the Physics and Mathematics, but that also went away.

Have you ever had a theft in the museum?

Yes, there was a theft in the 30s. Then they stole several paintings at once, a painting by Dolce, but the worst thing was that they stole a painting by Titian - a relatively small canvas, a chest image of Christ.
These paintings were eventually found. As for Dolce, he was fine, but the Titian painting was incredibly damaged: it was twisted, it was damp, it cannot be restored, we have it, but it is impossible to exhibit it, it is completely destroyed, it was in the 30s.
Then there was the theft, which became the plot for The Abduction of Saint Luke. It was a painting by Frans Hals from a museum in Odessa, we had an exhibition, and they sent it to us. The picture hung on the colonnade that runs along the sides of our pink staircase, one morning the picture was not seen in the exhibition. I was already a director then. It is always subject to bad dreams More precisely, the object of horror and fear. The picture was found very quickly. It turned out that the thief was our restorer, a young guy who was recommended to us as good master. The thief cut this picture out of the frame, wrapped it in a roll, he wanted to sell it to a foreigner, was caught doing it, got 10 years in prison. I received from him all sorts of news with regret, repentance, apologies.

I want to publicly express my gratitude to you from our Russian State University for the Humanities, because thanks to your act in 1997, the Tsvetaev Educational and Art Museum was opened at our university.

Thank you for the kind words. We really donated more than 1,000 exhibits to the Russian State Humanitarian University. This is the revival of the dream of Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev. After all, our museum was conceived as a university museum, for students, the educational idea was the main one.
Now we have received whole line buildings for our museum around the main building, and already this year we are finishing one of the buildings where a children's center will be created, where there will be classes for painting, for graphics, we will teach children engraving techniques, sculpture, ceramic work, there will be a photo laboratory, there will be computer classes, there will be special classes for disabled children. Moreover, this is a lovely house, an old manor, a hundred meters from the museum, surrounded by a garden with ancient lindens, next to the church of St. Antipy. So I hope that this is also some kind of development of our work with children, with youth.

How do you feel about the fact that your museum was surrounded by Shilov and Glazunov?

I do not want to talk about my personal attitude towards these artists, someone likes them, they are loved, I see how the queues are standing in the Shilov Museum. I must say that, as a museum worker, not as a specialist - my personal loves and dislikes - I cannot despise the public that goes to the museum, and treat them with disdain.
There is another question in everything in this: if some kind of conflict has now been created, then it was created not because we like or dislike Shilov, but because investors built a new building for Shilov’s gallery in an incredible time frame, for which they received a lot of money. large area between our museum and the national library - Pashkov's house is unfortunate, however, now there is some movement with the reconstruction of this house. It - White City This is a protected area. And what are they doing there ... They are building a huge business center there - with huge underground garages, with trading shops and so on. This is not the place to do it. This is very wrong. In addition, they entered our territory, the territory that is officially allotted by all documents to our museum to create a “museum” town, as he used to say, planned by Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev. We protested this. I do not want to confuse this with the Shilov Museum, but what is being done behind the Shilov Museum is an absolutely robbery action, of which, unfortunately, there are many in Moscow now.

Why is there so much strength in such a fragile, intelligent, intellectual woman? Is it congenital or acquired?

To be very frank, I'm not so fragile anymore, this is the eternal subject of my worries. I don't know what is going on, but there were very serious blows of fate - tragic both personally and in terms of the life of the country. Because those who did not survive the periods between 1946-1947 and 1954 simply do not know a lot about our country, but, probably, the peculiarity of my generation lies in some exaggerated, but very organic, genetic optimism that is inherent in us . And maybe he led such genetic optimism to this ... I have one absolutely unintelligent quality - I am not prone to depression. I haven't experienced it, I don't know what it is. Just like I have no cynicism. There are many shortcomings - there is no cynicism. By the way, cynicism is not necessarily a disadvantage.

In your opinion, how do artistic tastes change in the world, what comes into fashion, what, on the contrary, loses its relevance?

We are, as it were, in such an effect - the effect of wall art. There are innovations. There is no innovation as such. This also applies to surrealism, abstractionism and many other areas. They run into a wall, there is no development. But there are some trends.
I learned that Repin's exhibition was held in Hamburg with great success. People are standing at the Repin exhibition. I was in London not too long ago. And the art of the Pre-Raphaelites is shown at the Academy of Arts. This is pre-modern, modern turn XIX-XX century, curious artists, they may seem to us salon, too secular - insanely beautiful women in flowers, with elements of medieval design. I came to this hall (by the way, this is a collection of Lloyd Webber, the composer who wrote the musical "Cats", the rock opera "Christ Superstar") - the people walked, like in the subway - shoulder to shoulder. Huge huge interest.
All museums in the world are now noticing an increased interest in what we call realistic art, that is, in real forms in art. Apparently, some kind of fatigue, some feeling of the exhaustion of the techniques that the 20th century has developed. We feel the viewer's tendency, but we don't see the artist's response yet.

Do you think the museum business is dying, because the new generation will no longer be the same as before?

No no no. Museum work is not dying. Now it is very difficult with personnel. Well-prepared youth who graduate from universities and all sorts of educational establishments they reluctantly go to the museum. After all, museum work is literally from call to call. You have to come in the morning, before the spectator arrives, you have to see everything, you have to sign in special books. This work requires constant presence in the museum house. And then, the salary of museum workers continues to be the salary of state employees, very insufficient.

Is there any shift in restitution issues?

It depends on what you consider a shift. In what direction?

Germany continue to claim the things that are stored in the museum?

Of course. Germany continues to make claims sometimes in very rude and defiant forms. Moreover, I have never heard from the German side what responsibility lies on them, and in general - they owe something, or they owe nothing. This continues, but what is much more important than what they think is what our people think here in the country. In my memory, I went through a number of stages in my relationship to this problem. First, when in 1945 these valuables entered the Soviet Union in a number of museums, archives, libraries, a lot was really simply saved from destruction, from fires, from floods, from dampness - everything could be destroyed and plundered.
I know, I even read some documents, that there was an idea to leave everything in the Soviet Union as compensation, then they acted differently. In 1955, a huge part of these valuables was transferred to Germany. Our museum and the Hermitage donated 1.5 million art treasures. Then, when the fact itself, hidden for many years from the German side, was nevertheless published, a whole series of demands followed. In the end, everything ended with the creation of a law on displaced valuables, and their belonging to our country was recognized as a compensatory system. But there are a lot of opportunities in the law for some part to be given away - in the event that the valuables belong to religious organizations or anti-fascists, or to those who have national reasons the valuables were confiscated by the Nazis, and then all these valuables came to Russia, these valuables must also be returned.

How were the December evenings that take place in your museum created?

Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter, whom I had the honor to know, invited me on a tour to listen to the festival, which he organized. I really liked it there: the action took place in an old granary, chairs and a stage were installed on the earthen floor, the greatest musicians of the 20th century performed there. I asked: “Why are you doing this festival in such a place, which is absolutely not a concert venue, and why are you not doing it in Moscow.” - “Where is it in Moscow?” - "For example, in our museum."
This conversation took place in June 1981, and already in December the first December evenings took place. How are they different from any concerts in other museums? Because they are themed. Every time we come up with a special exhibition. For example, etchings by Rembrandt and chamber works Beethoven. There were various similar comparisons.

Have you had to take someone from the ruling elite around the museum?

For my very long life there were very few such visits in the museum. We have never been included in the clip of must-visit cultural institutions - big theater, the Kremlin Palace, etc. Something happened sometimes. Comrade Grishin came with Comrade Kirilenko, I remember them at the exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum. And I remember one, in my opinion, a very incorrect statement by Comrade Kirilenko, from which I shuddered all over. Approaching the painting “Madonna and Child” Crivelli is a 15th-century master, a Venetian - the Madonna sits on a throne and is surrounded by a crown - vegetables, fruits, but they all have a symbolic meaning, for example, cherry is a sign of Christ. Kirilenko, looking at the cucumber, said: “I wish this cucumber were for vodka” ... And, frankly, I shuddered a little from such a gastronomic approach to a work of art.
Or Marshal Rybalko, he came to the exhibition, looked at Rubesna’s Bathsheba, he really liked this puffy beauty and said: “This is what I understand, this is art: you take it in your hands - you have a thing.”

With modern conversations about the national idea, about revival, does someone from above understand your problems, does someone help?

And to what extent is aid and the national idea connected?

There is a lot of talk in the government about the need to revive culture, art, and specifically, is something being done?

No. Little is being done today. I don't see any big program yet. Something is being done, but very selectively and it is not always clear on what grounds. Well, let's say, huge sums of the ministry go to St. Petersburg. We are happy for our colleagues, but still not only they exist, and we understand why this is happening. This is not a program, this is a conjuncture today. Although Petersburg - great city, my father was born there, I feel like half a resident of this city. But I must say frankly that when I hear talk about spirituality and so on from the high stands, it rather irritates me. I understand that these are purely external curtsy, which are in no way supported by actions and true understanding affairs. At the same time, if Russia now needs something more, it needs to strengthen this particular sector. This is from the beginning, this is how it should be for our fatherland.

I heard that wonderful skits were arranged in the museum, did you take part in them and in what role?

Yes, she took it, in particular, in living pictures, depicted the front or back of the Centaur.

Do you like sports?

I love it very much. I did a little swimming, uneven bars. When the Olympics-80 was in Moscow, I took a vacation and sat through all the track and field athletics. All his life he subscribed to the newspaper, first "Soviet Sport", then the non-Soviet "Sport". I am aware of advances in this area. And when I was sitting on hockey - when ours played with the Canadians, then they first arrived - I was so sick that a group of athletes gave me a puck, I have it at home.

There were many high-profile exhibitions in your museum, but I am primarily interested in two of them - this is an exhibition of gifts to Stalin and an exhibition of paintings by the Dresden Gallery.

About the exhibition of gifts to Stalin. It opened in the early 50s, and before that it was mounted, the owner of the exhibition was the Museum of the Revolution, now it is the Museum modern history. The opening of the exhibition was accompanied by dramatic history for the staff of our museum: 75 percent of the employees were fired because the staff of the museum that made the exhibition showed it. These were terribly sad years, the exhibition was until 1953, it closed the day after Stalin's death.
May 2, 1955 opened an exhibition of masterpieces Dresden Gallery. The museum was surrounded day and night by a queue. We expected that at least one or two works would remain with us, for what work was done: some things were in a terrible state. For example, Titian's "Denarius of Caesar" - it dried up for three years before Pavel Demidovich Korin - he was the main restorer of our museum - could start restoration, he saved this picture. For this he received the title of honorary citizen of Dresden. But what a job! And it was not just one painting, there were a lot of paintings, for 10 years the restorers have been working on this. But no gesture of gratitude was made. Moreover, in Dresden, for some time, a sign hung on the museum: the museum has been restored, gratitude Soviet army who saved these things and thanks to the Soviet government, which returned the paintings. Now this plate is not present, it has been removed for a long time.

How was the Museum of Private Collections created?

This is a story that I am very proud of. This is the result of a long friendship with the collector Ilya Samoilovich Zilberstein, a literary critic, doctor of art history. He collected a wonderful collection - 2270 things, mostly Russian art. Unfortunately, for a very long time, collectors were considered in our country as criminally suspicious people who, for some unknown reason, own private property in the form of works of art. Of course, among collectors there are speculators, as well as among all others. But, in principle, a real collector is an amazing person, gifted with a passion for art. Ilya Zilberstein was such a person. He came and said: "Let's make a museum of personal collections." It was his idea. I responded very well to this. “I will give you my entire collection.” - “And then…” - “Next, we will persuade others…”
By the time the museum was opened, we managed to persuade others, and now the museum is replenished, even from abroad. Ilya Samoilovich believed that it was impossible to leave the collection to relatives - relatives are different, they begin to trade in this.
And I will never forget, this is the strongest impression of life. Our workers went to Zilberstein, his whole apartment was hung with paintings, on ropes. I come to the apartment ... All the walls - only cut ropes hang, but there are no things - we already have them in the museum. Imagine - only ropes ... And his wife Natalya Borisovna Volkova, she was the director of the TsGALI for many years, she told him: "Ilyusha, leave one thing as a keepsake." He said no. And he gave everything. It's almost unbelievable, but it was.

Museum after the war… How did you see it?

I saw the museum during the war in a terrible state. The museum was not bombed, but a building was bombed in the vicinity. The roof of the museum was completely without glass. For 4 years, snow and rain fell, in spring streams flowed down the pink stairs. The building was in a bad state.

You have a very aristocratic appearance, you can be compared with Queen Elizabeth of England. What is your relationship with life?

thanks for good words and unexpected comparison. With everyday life... When I came to the museum, young employees were busy collecting water, and working with a bucket and a rag was the main scientific work.
With everyday life ... I have been driving a car for a long time since 1964, on Saturday I go to the market, to the store, buy groceries, bring them home and cook myself. My methods are fast, developed by life, which provide me with all this quickly. I lived with my mother all my life, she lived 100 years and five months. And I must tell you that she did not just live - she was active until the age of 98, when she fell and broke her leg. And before that she was my left and right hand, it was my rear, the most expensive thing I had in my life. And she helped me to live in different plans, not only in everyday life. And now - well, everything must be done.

thanks for interesting questions for your patience, for your kindness. And I invite you to the museum.

(According to the materials of the program "Line of Life").

March 20 is the anniversary of u. One of the most respected figures in the museum world turned 95 years old. For more than half a century, she is now its president.

Always collected, in a suit of English cut, charming in her severity, bewitchingly eloquent. Irina Antonova at 95 remains a style icon and role model. All the most influential art managers in Russia are her students.

"Irina Alexandrovna always not only kept up with time, she was ahead of him! This amazing ability, because many tend to get stuck in their time. That's probably what she taught me. She also taught me how to walk in high heels! Because it allows you to keep your back, it is very correct," says Olga Sviblova, director of the Multimedia Art Museum.

She was admired by Marc Chagall and Svyatoslav Richter. Franco Zeffirelli proposed to marry him, and Jeremy Irons rode a motorcycle. Doctor of Art History, academician, one of the four women in Russia - full holders of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", she has been working at the Pushkin Museum for 72 years. Came in 1945, having served in the hospital as a nurse. She remembers how, a month before the Victory, she cleared the masterpieces of snow - the glass roof of the museum was destroyed by bombing. Then she helped to place " Sistine Madonna"- the Nazis hid Raphael's painting from the Dresden Gallery in an abandoned mine, it was saved by Soviet soldiers, and museum workers restored it. In 1961, senior researcher Irina Antonova was offered to become director. She was only 39, but the team had no doubt that she was the most worthy candidate .

She is a skilled popularizer, everything is always very accessible, reasoned, she tells very interesting things," says Natalia Avtonomova, head of the department of personal collections of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, and shows the rarest exhibits.

This became a tradition of the Pushkin era Antonova. The museum's own collection is not as rich as the collection of the Hermitage or Tretyakov Gallery. The Pushkin Museum became famous all over the world thanks to high-profile exhibitions. 1974 - visit of the "La Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci. To bring her, it took to pay a multimillion-dollar insurance, and the Soviet leadership went for it, thanks to the perseverance of Irina Aleksandrovna. As a result, people stood in line at Volkhonka at night to contemplate Mona Lisa's smile for exactly 15 seconds.

"Thanks to such directors, such people as Irina Alexandrovna, we can do something, and trust appears in us - in the Russian Museum. I am grateful to her for good school!" - admits CEO State Russian Museum Vladimir Gusev.

In her youth, Irina Alexandrovna dreamed of becoming a circus rider. He says: he likes working at the limit of possibilities. This principle was adhered to in the management of the museum. She did what others did not dare. In the stagnant year of 1981, she was the first to show Soviet citizens canvases by bourgeois artists Leger and Matisse. And banned Malevich, Filonov, Kandinsky at the Paris-Moscow exhibition.

“This is, in general, a courageous act of a courageous person. Because when there are ideological obstacles, ideological boundaries in society, it is very difficult to destroy them. And most importantly, one thing stood behind this - love for those monuments, respect for monuments and understanding the significance of those monuments in the history of culture and art,” said the dean of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov Ivan Tuchkov.

"When the director of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris received Mrs. Antonova, he publicly told her: "I admire you, I will give you any picture you ask!" She said: "Good. Then give us Edouard Manet's Olympia." Tom had to say, "Good. But I'll ask the President of the French Republic. "As you know, he allowed it," says Francois Saint-Cheron, professor at the Sorbonne University of Paris (France).

But not only high-profile exhibitions - Irina Antonova deserved gratitude and small deeds. In the 70s, with her resolution, she actually saved the archive of the philanthropist Sergei Shchukin - after the death of his niece, priceless letters and photographs were going to be handed over for waste paper.

"This resolution reads: 'This work is very important and necessary for the museum.' A. S. Pushkin Natalia Alexandrova.

After 52 years, she conceded the position of director to Marina Loshak - she personally chose the successor. But even now, without the approval of Irina Antonova, the Pushkin Museum does not even dare to paint the walls.

Now the president of the Pushkin Museum wants to celebrate his anniversary, as it should be for a scientist, with a scientific conference.

Director of the State Museum fine arts them. A. S. Pushkin; was born on March 20, 1922 in Moscow; graduated from the Faculty of History of Moscow State University in 1945; since 1945 she has been working at the State Museum of Fine Arts, occupied ... ... Big biographical encyclopedia

- (b. 1922), art critic, academician of the Russian Academy of Education (1989), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts (1997). Since 1961 director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts; initiator of the annual scientific "Wipper Readings" (since 1967) and (together with ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

- (b. 1922), art critic, academician of the Russian Academy of Education (1989), corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Arts (1997). Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (since 1961). Works on museology, aesthetic education ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- ... Wikipedia

Antonova, Irina Alexandrovna- (b. 1922) full member of the Russian Academy of Education (1989; Department of Education and Culture), director of the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. (Bim Bad B.M. Pedagogical encyclopedic Dictionary. M., 2002. S. 460) See also ... ... Pedagogical terminological dictionary

Antonova, Irina Alexandrovna Date of birth: March 20, 1922 Place of birth: Moscow Citizenship ... Wikipedia

Irina Alexandrovna Antonova- Director of the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkina, full member of the Russian Academy of Arts Irina Aleksandrovna Antonova was born on March 20, 1922 in Moscow. From 1929 to 1933 she lived with her parents in ... ... Encyclopedia of newsmakers

Antonova, Irina- Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts Director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts since 1961. Full member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, Corresponding Member of the Academy of San ... ... Encyclopedia of newsmakers

As we know, it is not supposed to discuss the age of ladies, but there are cases when it is simply not permissible to keep silent about it, especially when it comes to such an amazing woman as Irina Antonova.

More recently, Irina Aleksandrovna celebrated her 90th birthday, and in the spring of this year, the President of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin turned 95 years old. Relatives and friends talk about her life with admiration and at the same time with sadness in their eyes, because Boris Rotenberg, son of Irina Antonova is ill. And in our article we will tell you everything about this brave woman.

Short biography of Irina Antonova

It is simply not possible to tell about the life of Irina Antonova in a nutshell, but we will try. Irina Aleksandrovna was born in 1922 in Moscow. From her mother, she inherited a love of music, and from her father - to the theater.

From 1929 to 1933 her family lived in Germany, but after the Nazis came to power, they had to return to the Soviet Union. After school, Irina Alexandrovna entered the Moscow Institute of Philosophy, History and Literature, but received higher education She could only after the end of the war.

Work in the museum. A. S. Pushkina Irina Antonovna began during her studies at the institute. In 1961, she was appointed director of the museum, which she held for over 40 years. Irina Antonovna devoted all her time to work in the museum, even in the most Hard times for art. So in the 60s, when the law of censorship was in force in the country, she held such bold exhibitions as showing the works of Matisse and Tyshler, organized musical evenings, which sounded Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, and, as you know, they were not favored by the Soviet government.

In the 1970s, under her leadership, the museum underwent a complete reorganization of its expositions and exhibition halls. Irina Alexandrovna insisted that the paintings by Western European artists, which had lain in the storerooms of the museum for decades, be restored and put on display. Only thanks to Irina Antonovna, Soviet viewers were able to see the works of great artists from different countries.

During the period of perestroika, Irina Aleksandrovna brought the museum to a new level: exhibitions began to take on a large-scale world significance. In 1998, the museum celebrated its 100th anniversary and Irina Antonovna's merits in putting the museum on a par with such centers of culture as the Hermitage, the Louvre, and the British Museum.

Today the museum A. S. Pushkin has 600,000 works of art; new museums of private artists and impressionists have opened on its territory. But, according to Irina Antonova, full-fledged work requires the construction of an entire museum campus.

Irina Antonova, Evsei Iosifovich and their son Boris Rotenberg

Recently, they say that the family is something obsolete, but there are couples who were able to go through all the trials and keep their love. Exactly like this perfect couple you can name Irina Antonova and Yevsey Rotenberg.

Irina Antonova never liked to talk about her personal life, but it’s enough for us to know how many years she and her husband lived together, and what trials they had to go through. And this couple had the most difficult test: Boris Rotenberg, son of Irina Antonova and Yevsey Iosifovich is ill.

Irina Aleksandrovna was repeatedly asked the question: what sick Boris Rotenberg, which diagnosis how long he has been ill and how she lives with such pain in her heart. In one of the interviews, Irina Aleksandrovna said that she and her husband had been trying to create a full-fledged family for a long time, they were really looking forward to this child, and when the last hope Boris was born. Until the age of 6, their son grew up as a gifted, musical boy, he can still read "Eugene Onegin" by heart, but at the age of 7 he fell ill. After Irina Antonova and her husband heard a terrible diagnosis, all other problems began to seem small and insignificant. The disease could not be overcome, even the best doctors could not help him, and today Boris Evseevich Rotenberg is confined to a wheelchair.

With her husband Yevsey Iosifovich, an art critic, doctor of sciences, she lived for 64 years, in 2011 Yevsey Rotenberg died.

Today Irina Antonova President of the Museum. A.S. Pushkin, she continues to actively participate in the life of the museum, go to theaters, concerts and the circus. Despite her age, she looks great, as evidenced by the photo of Irina Antonova. But the main thing in her life is her son Boris Evseevich Rotenberg, she hopes that there will be a person who will take care of him when she is gone.

What is sick Boris Rotenberg, son of Irina Antonova, is not known. In none of the interviews, Irina Alexandrovna did not name the diagnosis, everything personal is closed from prying eyes. Once Channel One tried to find out what Boris Rotenberg was sick with, in response, the museum's press service issued an official memorandum, similar to the one that Buckingham Palace comes up with when the Queen's personality is affected: no one should get too close and no one should know anything.