The article contains the results of analysis of answers of 90 museums of the Russian Federation to questions regarding lighting of these museums as well as the results of inspection and measurement of lighting parameters (average exhibit illuminance, correlated colour temperature, colour rendering index, and luminance distribution) conducted in 7 museums and 1 conservation centre. It is found that museum lighting in the Russian Federation generally complies with the applicable requirements and recommendations and requires fundamental changes only in few cases. Many museums already use light emitting diodes (LEDs) as light sources and are ready to cross over to LED lighting completely. In the meantime, museums (primarily small ones) consider lack of regulations in the sphere of museum lighting one of the major problems.

The article focuses on the measurement of lighting characteristics of exhibited items in the exhibition halls of the two largest Russian museums – the State Hermitage and the State Tretyakov Gallery. The review of the current regulatory technical documentation for the design and implementation of museum lighting is given, the shortcomings are identified and the proposals for improving the legal framework for the lighting of the exhibited items are made. The measurements were carried out in accordance with existing recommendations, and according to which the lighting was designed in the museums. The principal measured parameters in this survey were UV radiation, illuminance of exhibited items, luminance distribution in the viewer’s field of view, correlated colour temperature and the colour rendering index of the light sources. A brief overview of the measurement results of some halls of selected museums is given.

The report contains the analysis of answers given by 90 leading Russian museums to questions related to their lighting, as well as the results of the survey and measurements of lighting parameters (average illuminance on exhibits, correlated colour temperature, colour rendering index and luminance distribution in the field of view). It was found that in general the lighting of museums in the Russian Federation meets currently valid requirements and recommendations, and only in a few cases there is a need for radical changes. Many museums already use LED light sources and are ready to switch over to entirely solid state lighting. At the same time, as the main problem museums (primarily small ones) name the absence of modern standards and regulations in the field of museum lighting as the main problem.

A method of using a digital imaging luminance meters (ILMD) for noncontact measurement of the illumination distribution over the surface of paintings is proposed. These measurements require a digital imaging luminance meters, an auxiliary diffuse reflection screen, and a ILMD software. The estimation of uncertainty of proposed method is fulfilled.

The new standards for museum lighting development was based on data collection by means of questionnaires, processing and analysis of subjective assessments of art historians, museum workers, research results of restorers and expert visitors, along with objective, physical measurements of photometric parameters of lighting installations in selected exhibition halls of the most famous museums in Russia. Based on the studies performed, national standards of both permanent and preliminary nature were prepared and introduced in 2020 by institute VNISI named after S.I. Vavilov.