Hermitage Museum Andrew W. Mellon acquired 21 works of art from the Hermitage and later donated to form a nucleus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (see also Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings). With the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, before the Siege of Leningrad started, two trains with a considerable part of the collections were evacuated to Sverdlovsk. Two bombs and a number of shells hit the museum buildings during the siege. The museum opened an exhibition in November 1944. In October 1945 the evacuated collections were brought back, and in November 1945 the museum
Hermitage cats 2007, the museum began adopting cats needing homes. In 2011, the museum began a "Catfest", a celebration of its cat population. "Catfest" has included cat painting contests and scavenger hunts for children. Beginning in 2015, because of the number of visiting tourists, a website has been set up by the museum for people who may be interested in adopting a cat. “It is an honor to adopt a Hermitage cat,” one potential cat owner was told. Other cats kept to deter mice in public buildings include: Hermitage cats The Hermitage cats () are a group of cats residing in the