The Hermitage is one of the world’s largest art and cultural-historical museum, whose collection consists of about three million works of art and monuments of world culture. The history of the museum begins with a collection of works of art that began to acquire privately Catherine II. In 1852, much of the sprawling collection was formed and opened to the public in 1880 Imperial Ermitazh.K museum attendance has reached 50 000 people a year. After the fall of the imperial power Hermitage has undergone significant transformation. Museum greatly enriched by the nationalized private collections and the Academy of Arts of the meeting. In the post-Soviet era Hermitage began its efforts to meeting the arts of the XX century, were purchased works Utrillo, Rouault, Soutine and others, not previously presented in Russian museums. The museum exhibition shows the development of world art from the Stone Age to the end of the XX century. Of great importance is a collection of primitive art and archaeological cultures from the territory of the former USSR, especially the richest collection in the world t. N. Scythian gold, unique findings from Pazyryk mounds, monuments of other cultures of the Great Steppe. Among the gems of the meeting of the old European painting – Tatishevsky diptych by Robert Campin, “Benois Madonna” by Leonardo da Vinci ,, “St. Sebastian “Titian” Lute Player “by Caravaggio,” Lady in Blue “Gainsborough. The museum has a rich collection of paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Poussin, Titian, Veronese, Claude Lorrain, and others.