In the late 1920s, the sale of artistic values from the Hermitage began in the USSR. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Chief Researcher of the St. Petersburg Institute of History Rounds Julia Kantor called in an interview with “Lente.ru” the number sold by the Bolsheviks of the Hermitage.
In 1921, Sovnarkk issued a resolution “On the preparation of the State Fund of Values for Foreign Trade”. The document gave the opportunity to sell art objects. Thus, the Hermitage operated a special commission that was the exhibits catalogs.
According to Kantor, the Hermitage lost 48 masterpieces of world importance. In particular, foreign buyers received pictures of Rembrandt, Rubens, Wang Eyka and Wang Dequee. “The main pride of the Hermitage has always been a Dutch collection. But after the sale, our country lost all pictures of Yana Van Eyka. Now there are no them at all. We had four works of Raphael, and now only two remained,” she stressed.
Several paintings remained in Russia due to problems during the sale. Thanks to this, I managed to leave the picture of Raphael “Madonna with Bezboro Joseph” in the Hermitage. According to Kantor, the picture was transferred to the canvas from the tree, which reduced the attractiveness of the canvas. In turn, the “Return of the Prodigal Son” Rembrandt failed to sell due to the size of the picture, which prevented the transportation.
In August, an international group of scientists has published the results of the study of rock paintings. Specialists have found evidence of the existence of primitive visual art from Neanderthal. Scientists have found that rock paintings in Spain are made before Homo Sapiens appeared.