The Tretyakov Gallery refused to give the icon of Andrei Rublev "Trinity" to the Russian Orthodox Church for the holiday of the same name because of the "difficult and unstable state." The experts decided that the condition of the "Trinity" does not yet allow it to be taken out of the museum.
“The icon “Holy Trinity” by Andrei Rublev is not subject to extradition outside the Tretyakov Gallery on the feast of the Trinity on June 4 this year due to the complex and unstable state, as well as the unpredictability of the ongoing process of negative changes. At the moment, the icon is in the restoration workshop in the process of urgent restoration of the monument, ”Interfax quotes the minutes of the meeting of experts.
Archpriest Leonid Kalinin, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's expert council for church art, architecture and restoration, said that the Russian Orthodox Church was sympathetic to this decision.
“Storage conditions must be provided for it anywhere — even in the Tretyakov Gallery, even in the Trinity Lavra Cathedral, and here it’s not the place that matters, but the quality of the capsule in which the icon will be placed,” said Kalinin.
The decision to transfer the icon to the Russian Orthodox Church was announced on May 15 by Vladimir Putin. Then he instructed to transfer Andrey Rublev's "Trinity" to the Russian Orthodox Church "in response to the numerous requests of Orthodox believers." Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts (RAKh) Alexey Lidov told The Insider that even the transportation of the Trinity threatens with irreparable consequences for her condition.
