A Brief History
On February 5, 1852, the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was opened to the public. The largest art museum in the world, by floor space, the Hermitage was established in 1764 by Empress Catherine the Great to house her massive art collection.
Digging Deeper
The Hermitage ranks 6th in the world by number of annual visitors, and most lists of “Greatest Museums” include it on their honor roll.
Other worthy contenders for the title of Greatest Museum would include the Louvre, in Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D.C., the British Museum, in London, and the Prado, in Madrid. Of course, other museums also stake a claim as the “Greatest,” so we leave it to you to tell us which one you think is indeed the “Greatest.”
Note: Among the truly great museums, the Smithsonian and the British Museum have the most eclectic collections and are not primarily “art” museums.
Question for students (and subscribers): Which of the greatest museums have you visited? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Kalyn, Nick. The World’s Greatest Museums: Resource Report. Kindle, 2013.
Norman, Geraldine. The Hermitage: The Biography of a Great Museum. Unicorn, 2018.
The featured image in this article, View of the Palace Embankment by Karl Beggrov, 1826, is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 70 years or fewer.
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