Looking After the Treasure

Last year’s controversial exhibitions at St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum gave attendance a new boost, and fueled hope for expansion and upgrade plans. Lisa Dickey takes a look at what’s in store for Russia’s greatest art museum.

For many, 1995 will be remembered as the year the ‘Hidden Treasures’ were finally revealed. In a move that made headlines all over the world, the Hermitage Museum put on display an astonishing collection of 74 Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings by some of the greatest names of that era: Monet, Matisse, Van Gogh, Renoir, Gaugin, Degas.