Directors of two Moscow museums honoured with French award for contributions to culture

The directors of Russia’s National Centre for Contemporary Arts and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art Mikhail Mindlin and Vasili Tsereteli have been awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters for their “significant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance”. Out of four ranks of the award, Mindlin will receive the order of officer, and Tsereteli knight.

The Order of Arts and Letters, established in 1957 with the aim of celebrating the most outstanding event of world culture, is one of four major French state awards. Past Russian recipients of the award have included novelist Lyudmila Ulitskaya, ballerina Svetlana Zakharova and film director Alexander Sokurov.

The ceremony, which will take place on 14 May at the French Embassy in Moscow.