Was here. The precious stone. Then the soviet union finished. Rose concluding remarks tonight from mark kelner Vice President of the Hermitage Foundation. Its not an art museum, its a museum of civilization. Its a museum that catherine when catherine the great founded it, were having the 250th 250th centennial shes like, look, russia demands and deserves a museum much like the worlds never seen. That was very much her personality and she started collecting. Everyones thinking shes collecting work thats very ancient. But the joke is shes collecting work thats contemporary to her and i like to think that the work that were doing at the foundation is work thats contemporary to us. 20th century, 21st century. Rose the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Mikhail Piotrovsky and mark kelner, when we continue. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by additional funding provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose tonight, we tour inside one of the largest and oldest repositories of art and culture in the world. All of my life, ive wanted to visit the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, russia, it is where catherine the great began assembling her personal Art Collection in 1764. Today, it houses more than 3 million items including everything from antiquities to the largest painting collection in the world. On a recent trip to Saint Petersburg i was able to finally visit this historic palace of art. My guide, Mikhail Piotrovsky, hermitage director and a good friend. Many consider him the most influential art director in the world. He inherited the post from his father in 1992, and has guided the museum through its transition from the soviet union to the presidency of Vladimir Putin. With little notice very little notice he made time for me and invited me to visit on a saturday afternoon. The museum was full of people. This is not moviemaking perfection but it is what it would be like if you were there yourself. So join us as we examine the history of its vast interiors and look at some of the most famous works of titian rembrandt, picasso and matisse. We began in Mikhail Piotrovskys office. This was done on a busy weekend with no lights, one camera and no preparation. We simply took advantage of an extraordinary opportunity and wanted to take you with us on the journey. Rose we are in the office at the hermitage of Mikhail Piotrovsky. He and i have known each other for a long time and he has been on my program a number of times, including recently when he talked about the 250th 250th anniversary of this remarkable museum. His Office Looks Like anybodys office that loves books, that loves art that loves culture but it is from this office that he directs this magnificent museum, it extensions and the art that he brings in and the art that he allows to be seen around the world. This great museum put together by catherine, first at the palace and then as a museum recently celebrating the 250th 250th anniversary, he has assumed the directorship of this Museum Following his father. Theres a photograph of his father here. But hes been to america a number of times. This is the first time i have been in Saint Petersburg and in hermitage. Of all the things that i wanted to do, certainly high on the list was to interview the president , but secondly was to come here to this place and meet this man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and welcome to the office. Its my office. It was my Fathers Office for many years. Historically, it was the office of the ministers of the russian empire. Rose the captain of ministers were here. Yes. And its a working office now because i work here, and all that is historical the desk belongs to alexander the iii. We had many desks like this. The clothes belong to tchaikovsky. This is a tap industry from our founding father. This is the way of Diplomatic Gifts. This is the ay of giving their portraits as Diplomatic Gifts now they give this. Rose this prince philip. And queen of netherlands. Rose and monaco. All friends of hermitage, because we have a lot of friends. Rose and theres a clock. And a cannon. Rose a cannon that goes off. Wow. And here is may i take this . Yeah, sure. Rose this is your father. Yes, my father worked all his life, 26 years as director and all his life, 80 years old, 70 years, from the young student to director was an archeologist. Rose he was an archeologist . A great archeologist. Nothing in comparison to him. Rose arab and islamic art. And ancient history all of his life. Rose and you took over from him at his death . At his death, yes, it was in 1991, he died. In 1992 i became director. I was appointed director of hermitage. Rose there is a remarkable similar later between the two of you. He was a little bit taller than you. My mother wasnt. Rose what was the legacy that he left you . Well, the legacy was the first one the scholarship the main thing for the museum. It was a tradition in the directors of the museum, scholars write books, pub lush publish books. My last one came out two days ago. Scholarship is my legacy which you need a lot of time and effort to protect because this problem rose repeat the question that you have to ask. That the museum is more a temple. Rose a temple. A temple and a university than a disneyland. Rose so the museum is more of a temple and a university. It is not a disneyland. It is not a disneyland. Rose it is the home the best of civilization can produce. Produce. Rose culture. It needs explanation. We have to explain to the people. Its not something you just come and youre happy. You have to study you have to think, you have to look, you have to listen to some explanation and then you understand how beautiful it is. Rose and also, you know this well, as countries go from one administration, one rule to another, it has to be always protected at the center of learning and the best of civilization. It has a unique place you hope, about politics. We think it is enough politics. Always, we have to use it as a connection between the nations where the politics is thats exactly how it is now, but you have to protect it also when the political situations change we have to protect it, also have National Treasure from all different kinds of intervention ideological or monetary or whatever. Rose well talk more about that later but you want to show me today what . I want to show you one important thing two important things. The first one, tradition. This museum and the palace, it was always palace and museum, because catherine the great established hermitage as a part of her palace, then built buildings for her collections, but also was part of the palace. It was the royal life, the important political decisions and pictures and sculptures around. So this combination of the museum and the palace is more or less unique, thats why the hermitage is a great collection of art and monumental history of russia and political history. It began with peter the great and ended with the second. Rose she was remarkable. She was a fantastic woman. She has done so many things which from which we can learn now. Beginning with presenting history collecting behaving when a woman behaved like a man laughter and we study every year. Its always very interesting and important. Rose so what we will do this afternoon is not only see some of the best art, but also the fact that the hermitage has expanded beyond its original. Yes. Rose you have New Buildings. So New Buildings, we have a conception called the great hermitage, which means that expansion but not exactly just you build it. Sometimes its New Buildings then New Buildings with storage where we show everything what we have in storage. Then hermitage in europe in russia, so its a very dynamic two sides on internet. Its a dynamic system of hermitage. Global hermitage. Its more than just extension. Global hermitage. Were rather ambition. Rose ambition to be global as an expression. As expression of world culture. This great media was collected in russia first but it doesnt belong just to russia it belongs to the world. It belongs to the world. Thats why we want the presence all over the world. Thats why we have connections in france and organization and friends all over the world. Thats why, when we have problems, we have friends all over the world we ask them with this kind or at kind of help, because we belong to the world and the world belongs to us. Its a very important issue today. We think its very important. Its a world museum. It belongs to the world. Rose does everybody in russia like that . Not everybody in russia likes this. Rose i could not be more excited about coming here with you to see. Im almost happy that i havent seen it before. Well, im always saying to people who can for the first time, so i lead the way. The hermitage is also a theater. Theres a small theater in the hermitage for catherine the great. Rose she shared with her friends. She loved theater. She was into historical opera. Rose in the museum . With a saturday afternoon crowd. How many people on an average on average, we have 3 million and a half every year. Rose every year, 3 and a half million people. The problem is most come in the summer. Rose as we do this in june, we have all of the people from school. Exactly. This is an italian apartment. Here we have beautiful views. Rose peter and paul portraits. And will be the celebration of the neva. Rose this is the neva right here. And one of the special features of hermitage is its not only one of the best collections, its the best view from the window in the world. laughter no other museum in the world has this. Rose you say that as the proud director of the hermitage. Right. Well, because this is one of the most famous rooms. Rose what are we seeing here . Of leonardo da vinci. Rose this is the room of leonardo da vinci. We have two pictures of leonardo da vinci. Most masterpieces. Rose wow. And this room has been used as a guest room for the guests. Rose the guests to have of the czars. Of the czars. Rose oh. This is the room of titian. This is a most important painting in our collection. Rose has any other leader done as much for art as catherine . Well, it is difficult to compare. She was simply in come competition but she has done more. Also she had trick that she knew. She was buying the best collection. She bought a collection from paris. She bought a collection from the first Prime Minister of britain. She knew to buy the best. So her style and collection rose she must have had a group of people who informed her. She had some friends intellectuals who advised her. She had Russian Diplomats who knew what she liked and she also had friends dealers, who had been telling here. So she was good at getting advice. Rose about quality and price. About quality and price. This is one of the paintings done by titian. Its one of the first landscaping and recently restored ten years to clean it properly. So its a new one of our rose took it out of circulation. We took it out of circulation. Rose and cleaned it over ten years . Over ten years. It was a cleaning which took ten years, just to clean up to paint something additional. Well, this is problem. Well, this is also a problem because thats why we have exhibitions all over the world because you must show all these things and show them because we only have ten in one room, its hard to appreciate them all. We bring one masterpiece from one museum for those who do understand. Rose with changes in politics, is it difficult to get museums in other parts of the world to loan to you . Or have you sometimes it is difficult. Now it is difficult because it just depends on policy and economics and now its drudge rifor two years. We dont have exchanges. Because there is a russian state is afraid somebody could be arrested. Rose right. We demand proper guarantee of the state, not just legislation a guarantee that it comes it comes back, so we are now the in the middle of negotiations. This is one of the best pictures in the world rembrandt, the return of the prodigal son. And this is one of the biggest treasures. I love the return of the prodigal son. Its in the theological center. Rose rembrandt and the return of the prodigal son were in the room where it is. So this is another rembrandt room. Another rembrandt room. We have approximately 21 recommend brants. 21rembrandts. Rose 21. Lets look at this. This is the holy famine. Rose this is the holy famine. One of the most human pictures by rembrandt. Rose rembrandt, holy family, dated 1645. Rembrandt lived from 1506 to 1669. 1772, acquired by the hermitage in 1772. Yes. During the first world war, they wanted to evacuate for hermitage. Two trains left one stayed because the civil revolution happened. Rose right. During the Second World War they have three trains. Two left and the one rose where did they take the art when they took it away . Hero mountain. Rose what is this room . This is italian and spanish rooms. This is the room of the spanish collection. This building was build for nikoli i. They planned to build this museum which is to be a masterpiece of museum architecture. It is decorated by objects from stone, russianmade. It was nikoli i idea to put the stone room there. And so we have this collection of paintings. Rose the great room. The great room. The big rooms. Rose where do we go from here . Through the dutch paintings. Rose okay. Peter the great. Peter the great. Loved netherlands, holland. For him he said holland was the most technicallydeveloped country in the world in europe. He learned a lot from holland. Also he loved dutch art. So we have the best collection of dutch art outside of holland. The rembrandt and many many other rooms. Rose catherine did she buy a lot of flemish art as well . Yes, and well see some of the flemish art as well. And the dutch with small paintings rose just look at this room. This is one of the rooms. There is another problem of the rooms. Rose everything is beautiful. Everything has been so thoughtfully considered. How many employees at the hermitage . We have 2,500. Rose curators. Now its terrible, we have more and more people in security. Rose because of terrorism. Because of terrorism, period. We have increasing security. But in general, we have Something Like 300 curators, 300 restorers. Rose youre constantly restoring . Yes. First of all, every picture that goes to exhibition must be restored and comes back. And we have the scientific exploration where you just study. Rose and they give you new insights once you clean it. Absolutely. These two paintings are from the First Painting in the hermitage. Rose this one . This one and this one. Adam and eve nu the First Painting that in the hermitage. Rose catherine the great. 1764. Rose 1764. Where did she buy it from . Political story. Rose yeah. It was the war between russia and prussia. And it was ended. During the war german collected a collection of paintings. But the war ended and had no money to buy this collection spent all the money on his war with russia. And russia had the money. So catherine bought the collection. The collection was very important politically. Rose this is a crossing from a crossing from the hermitage buildings. The buildings called hermitage. The courtyard and one building one to another. The building of small hermitage. First floor. Rose so were now now we are in the rooms, we are going along the garden and were in the rooms for the early netherlands painting. And this gallery has been the first which catherine built for her collection, and we are crossing and entering the Winter Palace, the main residence. Rose describe the Winter Palace. In the beginning, it was palace and a humid. In the beginning, it was palace and a museum. From the beginning, it was buildings built for the museum near the palace. So at the reception, it was a combination of museum and palace. And start to the left now, we turn into the Winter Palace official residence of russian czars. We entered we enter not from the main entrance. While this is the judge vault this is the throne room of the russian empire. Rose the throne room of the russian empire. The throne is here. And the room is judge. And the judge was considered romano and the room is called san judgesaint judge hall. We stay here to look at the throne and its history. After the revolution, it was demolished and the mat from soviet union put it here of precious stone. Then soviet union put it in another museum. And a we found it in different places in the museum. Rose what happened in the throne room . In the throne room, well, there was a big mat of soviet union, precious stones and here we usually display for big ceremonies and here we display the important ones. Rose right. Vladimir putin gave the museum the 250th anniversary. Rose to faberge. Yes. Rose he gave it to you from where . He acquired it or he acquired it. It was bought by russian businessmen. Rose and presented to the president. Presented to the president to give it to the museum. Rose thats how i heard it. This is the way to return back thanks. Rose so these russian businessmen, oligarchs, very wealthy, as they travel around the world, they see art for sale. And most of their directions are baroque. Rose yes. So its not easy to make them to say to them bring them forever back to russia. Rose Vladimir Putin as your president would like for his hermitage well, its a good thing. Usually, this year, he was sitting. Rose never sitting . The czar was always standing . Always standing. The ambassador before coming to the throne room have been crossing through this room. The military room which has portraits of all the generals in the russian army who fought against napoleon. Rose first the russians showed napoleon no, then said to hitler no. Yes, exactly. Rose yes. And 19th century was much cleaner than the 20th century. Rose these are the generals who fought napoleon. Only this has the duke of ellington. These are tall great families. Rose wow. It just goes on and on and on. Were still at the palace. With were still in the palace. In the main rooms of the Winter Palace. This is called the room of the crest of arms. We have crests of arms of all the governors of russia on the chandelier. So when the governors have been coming to be presented, there have been everybody standing under the symbol. A wonderful picture of russian army entering berlin for the first time in 1760, the time of elizabeth ii and peter ii. Rose and is here now because to have the commemoration of the 70th of 70 years of rose since being in world war ii right . 70 years. Rose i love the size of it, too, and the scope of it. We had a lot of wonderful military paintings. They need space to be shown. Rose and this room . This room is called alexander skival. Once again, its about the victory over napoleon. This portrait of alexander, this belongs to him. Now we have the big exhibition of european silver. But the room by itself has the picture, symbols of different battles between the russians and rose in a way napoleon gave a lot to russian art. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Rose his defeat commission so much. And it was this war was such a a very clean war for russia. It was a war where it was very clean. We were right in defending our country and something to be proud of. Thats why all this is commemorating. Rose we will see some of the new. You will see some of the new. Cross the square. Where its beautiful, well cross the square and well see the eastern wing of the building which is called the general. Rose okay. Beautiful day Saint Petersburgs day. This is a collection of matisse, one of the best in the world. Rose look at this look at this. Not every picture likes a big hall. Theres too much light. Its always an experiment. This is the famous madame matisse. This looks very much like a persian miniature. Rose holm rose how many matisse . Around 40. This is a fantastic matisse for me its the best. Rose the best. The best one. Rose but you have something on loan to the new museum. Yes, we have. These pictures, its music and dance. We have agreements with them for Certain Exchange and cooperation. Rose i love the color. The color is fantastic. Rose so you must be very proud of this. In addition to the hermitage. Now they have proper space and you can experiment with this. This is a fantastic portrait and now it looks very well. Also there are some discussions now. I decided to make kind of a the kind of referendum of visitors. How do you like the new display. Rose yeah. Because its right its wrong. Rose people who come to stay museum. People who come to see the museum. Thinking about having matisse, white walls, red walls. Rose and whats the response . Do you know . I dont know. Im just excited to do it. This is a fantastic red room. I think it will look very well. Rose how do you feel about it yourself, from your own sense. Good. Rose works for you . Works for me. Rose the light. A week ago, i was here, it was best. I think now it looks right. Rose yeah. This is picasso. Rose so here we are. Here we are. Rose how good is your picasso collection . Also very good, fantastic. Matisse is the best. Rose yes. This is picasso. This is the best picasso we have. Rose oh sure. And this is what its like on the level of rose yes, almost you can see the connection. 1908. 1908. Rose but you can still see, cant you some of these paintings in the museum of modern art . Yes its the same period and the same way of showing. Rose every one of these rooms has natural light. Yes, every one of these rooms. Most have the natural light. And this play between modern forms and classical rose and light floors. Floors. Its an historical building, so this is the way we show it. Rose yeah. Tell me about the paintings. This is one of the great picasso paintings called sisters. Has a lot of stories. Two citiers meeting in a prison, in a hospital, marie and elizabeth. It can have many explanations to it. Rose how long has this been in the russian collection . It is from the most private collection of any that came to hermitage. Rose so this is the gift of a gift from the United States of america just on our anniversary. A big collection of american art, applied american art and masterpieces, collected in American History given to us from the American Foundation of hermitage. So its a whole room of masterpieces of american decorative art. Its a big addition to our collection. Rose so the hermitage is not only building its acquiring. Yes, were acquiring. We have a lot a lot of friends. This is another gift, given by the artist. Considered to be one of the masterpieces of art of the 20th century. And this is a wonderful thing. Its kind of a history of russia. Then inside we have the picture of soviet russia with some old soviet songs and songs are nostalgic. Rose yes. And this is always a problem to explain this is not rubbish its installation. But we added another thing to this. This is the next stage. Rose this is. Are you saying its in the dust bin of history . Destroyed everything to build something. Everything was destroyed. Now i think weve shown we can build something. Rose yes. Its a very important gift. This costs 5 million 6 million. Rose and given to you by. By the artist himself. Rose ah. Do you ever think about stopping work . No. laughter no, because this will never stop. Its my hobby. Rose quite a hobby, sir. So i work. Rose after you. So after a couple of hours walking around, looking at this Amazing Museum and not only the past and the present, but the future. We watched at the end the mounting of an exhibition. What does it mean to you, this place . Well, to me, it is my home because ive grown up here. But its one of the greatest working symbols of russian culture and world culture. Its a wonderful place. Its a place which helps people to live and helps people to be isolated from all the terrible things which are happening around, political and troubles and not only political. People come to this museum and temple and its a function which does work. Rose thank you for being our guide thank you for being our friend, thank you for keeping this place in such a remarkable way so that it continues, we saw with new exhibitions, with new space, yet, at the same time, acquiring art across the spectrum. Thank you. Thank you very much. Sorry for taking so much of your time. Its all i wanted to show you. Rose i have friends around the world. This is a remarkable place. This is beyond political conflict, beyond politics. This is a place that harbors some of the great great treasures of the world and for me to come and be here and to see it with my own eyes and to have such an articulate and brilliant and honored guide has been one of the great pleasures of my life. You should all come to russia and see the hermitage as a reflection of a great country. Rose continuing our exploration of the hermitage, we talk to mark kelner. He is the Vice President of the Hermitage Foundation, and we began with that question, what is the Hermitage Foundation . Hermitage foundation is a group of american friends that are interested in supporting the hermitage and its direct in whatever they might need logistically greatively financially in exhibiting western and american art or in work that needs help in the hermitage. We have a very interesting situation because, in the post soviet period theres a period that involves cultural diplomacy, that they can call on us saying were interested in learning about american art and what access can you offer in new york, you know in ohio. Rose were in a postsoviet period. And its sometimes difficult in terms of whats going on politically, but truthfully these are servants of culture that arent paying attention to what happens politically. Rose your essential function is to serve the hermitage. Yes, and specifically whatever request they might have, logistically. Rose a bit about you russian parents. Yeah. Rose you were conceived in russia. Yes. Rose you were born in america. In cleveland, very proudly. Rose and you want to be or are an artist. Im an artist. A lot of my work is rooted in that russianamerican duality. I think thats what led me to working with russian collectors of art. Anything having to do with art that had to be coming from a russian place, i was involved in. There are russian immigrant artists in new york considered staples of International Contemporary work, and i was around them and because of that the Hermitage Foundation found me, and we got to Work Together in a couple of interesting contemporary, International Contemporary projects. It was really kind of cool. Hard to say no to. Rose considering your background characterize this museum for me. Its not an art museum. Its the museum of civilization. Its the museum that catherine, when catherine the great found it, we were having our 250th 250th centennial. Shes, like, look, russia demands and deserves a museum much like nothing worlds ever seen. And thats very much her personality and she started collecting. Whats interesting is everyone is thinking shes collecting work thats very ancient but the joke among hermitage is shes collecting work thats contemporary to her. I would like to think the work were doing at the foundation is work contemporary to us. 20th century, 21st century. When dr. Piotrovsky comes to america, i got a chance to introduce him to great artists curators galleryists that are interested in using the hermitage as a means of promoting culture theyve never seen before. Rose who is this man my audience just had a chance to walk through a museum hes been a director of and his father has been a director of. Who is he . The decider. The hermitage is a very totalitarian environment. One man makes all the decisions. In addition to what art goes on the wall, where they put it. Or when charlie rose shows up on any specific day unannounced, yes, ill lead him on a tour right now. Its very much his schedule. I mean, thats it. I mean, theres no separating someone from his station from that you know, thats his life, that he very much turned every part of that museum into his life. When he comes here hes not just representing the hermitage hes representing russian culture and culture that is essentially world culture that needs to be explored. Rose and how does a museum and a director handle those times in which the politics are strained between russia and the United States or russia and much of the western world . I think right now theres it makes for a sad state of affairs that russian art has always been politicized, that no matter what, avantgarde or during nonsoviet times, that russian art has been censored. Theres a self censorship among contemporary artists in russia rose for fear. For fear of prosecution that if my voice speaks up, am i going to jail for it . And a lot of these actionisms that we see are artistic in their roots and a lot of people are scared, and we dont know what direction things are going to go. On the other side of that coin, we have the Hermitage Museum that is been around for 250 years and governments and regimes have come and gone to the Hermitage Estate historically and thats the world i like to occupy in. Thats when i go out with my tin cup and talk to people and sayu3 lets support the Hermitage Museum in terms of building their contemporary Art Collection for the first time. Lets get a warhol. Lets try to find people who are interested. If were in the service of culture politics really shouldnt be something that we should be concerned about. Its gotten more difficult to talk to people and be a true leader for the museum, but among our crowd, i dont think many people care. Rose there is a lot of rich people in russia now, too. Theres a lot of rich people in russia. Theres this guided notion i have trouble with sometime. Were a 501c3, we have a situation with a lot of rich russians in new york, why cant they help the culture. But the crux of what im trying to say, in america we have a system, where the wealthy, charlie, have supported art museums and museum culture. Nothing like that exists in russia and never has. We dont have a situation were trying to show and i speak with russian americans i mean were trying to show that, look, its your responsibility for where you know for you have a choice. You have an opportunity to promote culture in russia outside of russia, supporting the hermitage, and its your responsibility, and no one else will do it if not you and i want the hermitage Taj Foundation to be a leader in holding the flag and saying we need help. Look at our system and how does that behoove the Hermitage Museum . Hermitage has a lot of friends. There are a lot of people who recognize the hermitage without recognizing were living in salad saladsVladimir Putins russia. Rose we have been through crimean war, the russian revolution, the cold war and the friendship has survived, the friendship between the museum and the world has survived all the way through. None of us in any great museum has had to confront anything like the change in the hermitage has, it stayed completely true to the tradition of a great repository, the interningle community, one can only guess how complicated that must be administratively politically and financially, that from neil mcgregor. 3 million objects are stored at the hermitage. Theres no way anyone can see in their lifetime. Rose 10 is on display. Less. Even though a huge museum 3 million objects. Also a museum thats interested in establishing satellites. All throughout russia there will be a satellite concerning contemporary art. That extends to europe. My goal would be i would love to see a Hermitage Museum here in the United States. That would be a dream. Why not . You know, despite whatever political manifestations of relations and you know its tough. Were in a cold war 2. 0 perhaps. But, you know, i hope not. But i dont see why that has to be why art has to be politicized in that way. I mean, its the common core of what we have as rose its a culture of civilization. I think so. Rose and it is a way to we live in a very, very difficult time in terms of culture because we see people for a variety of reasons destroy culture as a political statement. The people at the leadership of the Hermitage Museum foundation, our chairman of the board, has been in business since the early 1970s and i asked him about this, hes turkish. I said look at whats going on with i. S. I. S. , with people destroying culture and trying to make their own by destroying you know, trying to make a legacy by destroying whats been before. And he said, mark, its a terrible situation but we move forward. Theres no choice but to. You know, if theres wars that are going on, were involved in preventing it by sharing what we have in common. Rose thank you for coming. Thank you for having us. Rose pleasure to meet you. My pleasure. Rose this was an amazing experience for us and lots of people deserve credit and you will see a special credit list at the end. But i want to single out some people who without them it would not have been possible. Mikhail piotrovsky, obviously. Yvette vie vega, the cameraman who did a remarkable job my colleagues jeff and fred who came in and helped us put together the package. Christine edwards on my staff was wonderful in editing this thing and making it presentable to you and corey who helped write it and put together our understanding of what the hermitage means. It has been for all of us an unbelievable experience. To look at others who made it possible. For more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs. Org and charlierose. Com. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org rose on the next charlie rose, a conversation can david rennic, editor of the new yorker magazine and unique stories looking back at the Founding Fathers who created it all. So this business of the regalian march toward historical progress, i think thats way overconfident. And when discussing america, there are a lot of people who are without resources and who look at the widening gap of incomes and any number of other problems and, so, for us its great to celebrate on july 4, but complacency is not an option. They didnt think necessarily each individual was unique but they knew they were present at the creation of something special. In 1776, john adams writes to abigail and says start saving every letter i write you. Purchase a leather volume to put them all in. Jefferson invents a machine to make copies for all his letters and by the end of the lives of both adams and jefferson who are the most interesting symbolic creatures because of their combination of friendship and rivalry, when they write letters, theyre writing to us. Rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by additional funding provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications the following kqed production was produced in high definition. Calories, calories, calories wow, it rocked my world it just kind of reminded me of boot camp. I dont know what you had, but what i had was great. It almost felt like Country Club Food to me. Dont touch. Its hot i gotta tell you, you people are getting me all excited with all these d