Heritage agreement signed with Russia

An agreement regarding academic cooperation was signed by Professor Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum, and Tadeusz Zielniewicz, director of Warsaw's Royal Lazienki Museum, in the presence of the Polish Minister of Culture, Bogdan Zdrojewski.

Cooperation will chiefly concern former residences of Russia's Romanov dynasty in Poland, and the collection of King Stanislaw Poniatowski, Poland's last sovereign monarch, who ended his days in Russia.

The cooperation will also encompass the Royal Castle Museum in Warsaw, as well as Poland's official cultural institute, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Besides joint research projects, the agreement will facilitate internships, exhibitions, conferences, publications and study tours.

Minister Zdrojewski is currently on the last of his three-day visit to Russia today. This morning, he visited St. Petersburg's Roman Catholic Church of St Catherine, where he was shown the crypt of King Stanislaw Poniatowski. The Polish king had been entombed in the crypt for 140 years, but after Poland regained her independence in 1918, the monarch's remains were finally brought back to his homeland in 1938. (nh/bee)

Polish Minister of Culture Bogdan Zdrojewski (L) and Director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky (R) shake hands after they signed the agreement. PAP/EPA/YEUGENI SINYAVER