Hermitage Museum

Hermitage, fully State Hermitage Museum, Russia Gosudarstvenny Ermitazh, art museum in St. Petersburg. Petersburg founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great as a court museum. It met the Winter Palace and served as a private art gallery compiled by the queen. Under Nicholas I Hermitage was rebuilt (1840-52), and opened to the public in 1852. Following the October Revolution of 1917, state collections became public property, and the museum was expanded in the 1920's with art that required collections. In 1930-34, during a time of rapid industrialization, some artefacts were sold by the Soviet government to record the purchase of industrial equipment from the West. The European art museum from the late 19th to the early 20th century was expanded extensively in the post-World War II era. The museum now has five connected houses, including Winter Palace (1754-62) and Hermitages Small, Old, and New.

Hermitage Management includes nearly three million items from the Stone Age to date. Among them is one of the richest collections in the world of western European art since the Middle Ages, including numerous works of art by Renaissance Italian and Baroque Dutch, Flemish, and French artists. Russian art is well represented. Hermitage also has a great hold on Asian art; most notable is its collection of Central Asian art.

The largest museum in the home and overseas satellite museum, Hermitage Amsterdam, opened in the Netherlands in June 2009. Located on the Amstel River in central Amsterdam, it is part of a larger effort to showcase the museum's treasures at an exhibition around the world.