Boris B. Piotrovsky, 82; Led Hermitage Museum

Boris B. Piotrovsky, director of the world-renowned Hermitage Museum and an authority on the ancient civilization of Urartu, which flourished in what is now Armenia more than 2,500 years ago, has died in Leningrad of a cerebral hemorrhage, the Soviet news agency Tass said.

Piotrovsky, who was 82 when he died Monday, became internationally famous in 1939 for his discovery of Urartu. But more recently he had been known in the West as spokesman for and director of the prestigious Leningrad museum that under glasnost had begun to let some of its treasures travel to the outside world.

Piotrovsky published more than 200 works in the Soviet Union, including “The History and Culture of Urartu” in 1969. His excavations in Armenia at Mt. Karmir-Blur Hill uncovered the remains of an Urartu-period town and fortress.

After nearly 15 years in archeology, Piotrovsky became a member of the Armenian Academy of Science in 1944. He became director of the Leningrad branch of the predecessor to the Institute of Archaeology in 1953, then took over leadership of the Hermitage in 1964.

Among dozens of Soviet awards, Piotrovsky was given the 1974 Firdousi Prize for his research into the ancient cultures of Transcaucasia and Iran, Tass said. He also was an honorary member of the British, French and other foreign academies of science.

He also took part in analyzing the remains of King Tut’s tomb and helped decipher dozens of rock drawings in Egypt.

During his tenure at the Hermitage, cultural freedom in the Soviet Union expanded and contracted, and recently expanded again under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

The Hermitage, housed in what once was an 18th-Century czarist palace and always a focal point of world artistic attention, has taken some advantage of the openness by agreeing to show some works long hidden and let others travel to foreign countries for exhibit.