Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky was born in Yerevan, Armenia, in 1944. His father, Boris Borisovich Piotrovski, an eminent archaeologist was director of The State Hermitage Museum from 1964 to 1990. Mikhail Piotrovsky graduated with honours from the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad State University, specializing in Arabic Studies, in 1967. He also attended Cairo University from 1965 to 1966. He entered the Leningrad branch of the Institute for Oriental Studies as a research assistant in1967 and worked there until 1991. In 1991 he was invited to join the Hermitage staff as first deputy director with responsibility for research work. In July 1992 Mikhail Piotrovsky was appointed Director of the State Hermitage by government decree.

Geraldine Norman grew up in Oxford and, after doing a degree in mathematics, joined the staff of The Times newspaper as a statistician in 1962. The construction of the Times-Sotheby index of art prices provided her introduction to art journalism. She was Sale Room Correspondent of The Times from 1969 to 1987 and Art Market Correspondent of The Independent from 1987-1995. She was the first director of the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House in London and has been the UK Representative of the Hermitage since 2001.

Tatyana R. Pasynkova

Tatyana Pasynkova leads the Hermitage curators/experts selected for our privileged access tours. Ms Pasynkova has dedicated much of her life to the Hermitage and her knowledge and passion for the museum is unrivalled. She is responsible for the hosting of heads of state, royalty, academicians and other guests of Professor Piotrovsky needing extra attention. Her expert team of Valentina Vakhmenina and Elena Etsina guarantees you the most qualified attention to this special Hermitage experience.

Natalia Sokolova

Lena Ferizba

Elena Shesterina

Natalia Sokolova and her colleagues Lena Ferizba and Elena Shesterina, are in overall charge of your visit to St Petersburg.

Although the programme is focused on the Hermitage and its treasures, any visit to St Petersburg would be remiss without seeing the mains sights as well as getting an insight into Russia today.

Natasha, Lena and Elena are all graduates with the highest honours from St Petersburg University and though highly qualified Hermitage guides in their own rights, their main responsibility will be your outside the Hermitage experience.

They will be with you from the moment you arrive in Russia until the moment you depart, making sure your every need, of comfort as well as knowledge, is catered to.

Some remarks from last season's guests:

"Excellent, thorough, organized, knowledgeable, warm. I would have her in my home any day!"

"Absolutely excellent in every detail, helpful and knowledgeable, able to answer any question always with a smile."

"Wow! What a wonderful, intelligent, friendly host. We thoroughly enjoyed her."

Ardyth Eisenberg travels frequently and tries to see every museum within a 30-mile radius of a destination. The first foreign country she visited was the former Soviet Union, where she spent three hours at the Hermitage. Having but scratched the surface of the museum’s collections gave her the desire to return, and study them in a more relaxed yet disciplined manner.

She and her husband Bob, also a great museum and art history enthusiast, were the first to have a place on the Friends' USA based tour in March 2008, and very enthusiastically encourage other art lovers to share the same opportunity of privileged access to the Hermitage museum.