Rublev's Trinity icon not fit for removal from Tretyakov Gallery yet - experts

MOSCOW. May 23 (Interfax) - The handover of Andrei Rublev's Holy Trinity icon to the Russian Orthodox Church could be postponed due to the need to prepare the right storage conditions, the attendees of a meeting held at the Tretyakov Gallery on Tuesday concluded.

"Rublev's Holy Trinity icon cannot be let out of the gallery in time for the Holy Trinity on June 4 this year because of the complicated and unstable condition and the unpredictability of the continual process of negative alterations. At the moment, the icon is at a restoration workshop, the monument is undergoing an urgent restoration process," the minutes of the meeting said.

The Russian Orthodox Church was understanding of the conclusion, saying that preserving the shrine was a priority. "It must be provided with proper storage conditions anywhere, be it the Tretyakov Gallery or the Trinity Cathedral of the Lavra [of St. Sergius]. What matters here is not the place but the quality of the capsule into which the icon will be placed," archpriest Leonid Kalinin, head of the Moscow Patriarchate council of religious art experts, told Interfax on Tuesday.

The dialogue between the Church and the museum continues "in a bone fide manner," with both sides aware of the enormous responsibility for the "great monument of global significance, that is the Holy Trinity icon," he said.

Should Patriarch Kirill see fit, one of the icon's miracle-working copies will be displayed at the Christ the Savior Cathedral on June 4, and later, once the icon-case is ready, the original will take its place at Trinity Cathedral, he said. "But that will be done already with a preparation, with a calculation for ever and ever, so that it finds its home haven for which it had been painted," Father Leonid said.