Hermitage Museum to Open Barcelona Branch in 2019

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg will open a new branch in Barcelona in May 2019. The museum will be located in the Casa Llotja de Mar, an 18th-century neoclassical building near the port. It will span 15,000 square meters across five floors, with an initial budget of 38 million euros and a target of 500,000 annual visitors. Artistic director Jorge Wagensberg, former director of CosmoCaixa, plans to integrate scientific dissemination alongside art. The Hermitage has previously expanded to Amsterdam (2004 temporary, 2009 permanent) and Italy (Ferrara 2007, later closed; Venice). The Barcelona project aims to avoid the pitfalls of previous expansions by fostering independent programming rather than merely franchising the Russian brand.