Dr. Alexey Guzanov, Chief Curator and Deputy Director of Pavlovsk Palace, a State Museum-Reserve in St. Petersburg, Russia, will give an overview of Pavlovsk Palace’s history and ongoing restoration. A gift from Catherine the Great to her son, Pavlovsk Palace was the Imperial Residence of Paul I and Marie Feodorovna. Construction began in 1780 as notable artists, landscape designers, and craftsmen furnished it with marble walls, murals, tapestries, paintings, and inlaid floors, planting the grounds with carefully designed gardens. After its looting and near destruction during WWII, the Palace and park have been brought back to stunning life.
Dr. Guzanov is a scholar, researcher, author and lecturer and is internationally recognized for his efforts to repatriate works of art and artifacts which were stolen or lost as a result of the turmoil caused, throughout Europe, by World War II. His talk will include photos of the Palace and its furnishings, an overview of its history and construction phases by some of the most eminent architects of the period, and the ongoing efforts to identify and repatriate the art and artifacts which disappeared from the Pavlovsk during World War II.