Corbis and State Hermitage sign agreement to produce digital images of historic works of art; participation in Corbis digital archive to enhance access to world-renowned collections.

the company developing the world's foremost collection of digital images, today announced that it has signed an agreement with The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The non-exclusive agreement, to include images of works in the museum's vast collection of art and historical treasures in Corbis' rapidly growing digital archive, will allow Corbis to license the digital images to a variety of publishing and communications professionals and to use the images in Corbis products.

The State Hermitage joins a group of leading museums currently working with Corbis, including The National Gallery in London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the State Russian Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the Kimbell Art Museum and the Barnes Foundation, among others.

In addition, Corbis has developed relationships with many noted professional photographers, cultural institutions, public and private archives, and private collections in building this comprehensive archive of digital imagery.

Professor Mikhail B. Piotrovski, director of The State Hermitage Museum, said, "For the benefit of the many audiences we serve, it is essential that we apply new technologies to make our collections more accessible and to protect and preserve this material for future generations. Our relationship with Corbis enables us to accomplish this goal by improving control over the worldwide use of our material and, in addition, delivering an incremental revenue stream. We look forward to working closely with Corbis on this project."

Art historians and picture editors from both The State Hermitage and Corbis will work together to identify works from the museum to be included in the archive. In addition, Corbis will be supporting the museum in the careful process of photographing the works of art. These photographs will then be digitized using high-resolution scanning and imaging techniques. Images are stored and distributed with rights and usage guidelines, captioning and crediting requirements, and other cataloging information to provide efficient management of and access to the materials in the archive.

"The State Hermitage has incredible resources and collections, and we are very excited to be able to work with the museum," commented Doug Rowan, president and CEO of Corbis. "The museum shares our vision of how new technologies can be used to build appreciation of the museum's outstanding collections."

The State Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage has one of the largest and most important collections of fine and applied art in the world. Its collections include approximately 3 million works of art and artifacts from throughout the world, encompassing virtually every period from the late Stone Age to contemporary times.

It includes exceptional collections of French impressionist and postimpressionist paintings; French, Spanish and Northern European paintings by old masters; and Italian and Northern European Renaissance paintings. The museum also holds some of the world's most important collections of ancient art, including Greek and Roman classical sculpture, Egyptian sculptural work and Scythian gold artifacts. The focal building of The State Hermitage Museum is the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, which served as the winter home of the czars until the fall of the Romanov dynasty during the Bolshevik Revolution.

Corbis is a privately held company founded in 1989 by Bill Gates to create new uses and markets for high-quality digital content. The company is building a unique and comprehensive archive of high-quality digital imagery and creative materials. The subject matter in the archive is very broad, encompassing science and technology, the fine arts, history, people and cultures, natural history and many other areas. The three operating divisions of the company are Corbis Media, Bettmann and Corbis Publishing. Corbis Media licenses content from the digital archive to creative professionals. Corbis Publishing produces and publishes innovative, high-quality CD-ROM and interactive online products for consumers.

Bettmann licenses material from its more than 16 million-image collection to the publishing community. For more information about the Corbis archive and its business divisions, visit the Corbis Web site at http://www.corbis.com. Corbis, Corbis Media and Corbis Publishing are based in Bellevue, Wash. Bettmann operates from offices in New York. Corbis U.K. Ltd. operates on a pan-European basis from its offices in London.

CONTACT: Corbis Corp.

Laurie McEachron, 206/649-3363

E-mail: [e-mail]

or

Waggener Edstrom

Angela Newlove, 206/637-9097

E-mail: [e-mail]

NOTE TO EDITORS: In the Internet/email addresses noted in this news release, there is an "at" symbol between lauriemc and corbis.com and between angelan and wagged.com.