The Red Room,by Henri Hatisse,1908

This exhibition at The State Hermitage Museum presents remarkable paintings, which nobody has ever seen. They belonged to private collections and were on display in separate exhibitions. During the Second World War the paintings were hidden and after the war they were taken in the Soviet Union like many other displaced works of art. In 1950 a considerable number of items, which had been taken away, was transferred to Germany. On display are only some of the items, which the Soviet state left and kept in closed museum repositories. This exhibition is ongoing.

The museum was due to keep these works in perfect condition and this has been done, but exhibiting and studying were forbidden. Due to the changes in Russia the Hermitage with the help of The Ministry of Culture of Russia has an opportunity to represent items from closed repositories. It is up to politicians, diplomats and lawyers to decide their fate. As to museums they are to reveal hidden items that had waited for a peace treaty, which did not take place then. We believe, that making the items, which are points at issue, available to people will help to come to a deserved decision, which will be approved by our descendants.

First of all, this exhibition is an artistic event, and it is our duty to study, demonstrate and care for works of art. A willful history conducted a unique experiment: dozens of masterpieces by such prominent masters as Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse and many others turned out inaccessible both for the public and art connoisseurs when impressionism and post-impressionism were of great interest. These paintings returned to people will change our understanding of notable artists' works. This uncommon exhibition gives us that unique feeling of a discoverer, which with great pleasure the Hermitage shares now with its visitors.

With the possible exception of the Louvre, there is no museum in the world that rivals the Hermitage in size and quality. Its collection is so large that it would take years to view it in its entirety--at last count, there were nearly three million works on exhibit. The origins of the Hermitage can be traced back to the private art collection of Peter the Great, who purchased numerous works during his travels abroad and later hung them in his residence. Catherine the Great expanded the collection considerably, and she and her successors built the Hermitage collection in large part with purchases of the private collections of the Western European aristocracy and monarchy.