Rock concerts cause damage to State Hermitage
A set of matryoshkas, traditional Russian dolls, depicting the band members of The Rolling Stones, who played in front of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg in 2007. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Ears aren’t the only items that may suffer from blaring rock music. The preliminary results of a Russian study by scientists at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg found that rock concerts by the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and others in the adjacent Winter Square have affected their collections over the past three years, The Independent of London reported.
The research, now being examined by the Grabar Art Restoration Institute in Moscow, showed that every 10 concerts above 82 decibels added an extra year to the age of a work because of vibrations. After a 2004 McCartney concert shook the windows of the Hermitage, the museum asked the Stones last year to keep the sound level below 85 decibels to protect works by the likes of Cézanne and Matisse in the palace’s nearby wings.
Rolling Stones “Start Me Up” played live in St Petersburg in 2007
Source: New York Times
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