One of Russia's most famous museums, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, is set to open a branch in Moscow by 2018 that will primarily feature contemporary art, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
The Hermitage-Moscow museum will be constructed on the territory of the former ZiL automobile factory near the Avtozavodskaya metro station, the newspaper reported, citing a plan signed by the Hermitage's general director Mikhail Piotrovsky.
Russian construction company LSR Group will undertake the development, its board chairman Andrei Molchanov told the newspaper. He said his company could make 3.5 billion to 4 billion rubles ($57 million to $65 million) from the project.
The building will remain the property of LSR Group, but the museum — including all exhibitions and PR support — will be exclusively run by the Hermitage, the report said.
The Hermitage seeks to expand even further within the next few years, to the Russian cities of Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, as well as an international branch in the Spanish city of Barcelona, the newspaper reported.
