Hermitage Museum devotion, ownership and ultimate sacrifice, showing how the collection came about, how it survived tumultuous revolutionary times and what makes the Hermitage unique today. Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum () is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The second-largest art museum in the world, it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine's Day. It has been open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of
Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum Kirkilas and former Vilnius Mayor Juozas Imbrasas also participated in the decision-making process. The Vilnius Guggenheim Initiative was ended after allegations of corruption involving the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, discovered after an audit by the National Audit Office of Lithuania. Finland then received the opportunity to develop the museum in Helsinki with no further chances to develop the museum in Vilnius. Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum Vilnius Guggenheim Hermitage Museum was a proposed art museum in the city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. On April 8, 2008 an international jury named Zaha Hadid, a British-Iraqi architect, the winner of