Of all the museums in the world that have a Dutch masters collection, the Hermitage takes the prize. There might be other countries that have more, but outside of the Netherlands there is no other single museum with so many Dutch Masters under one roof. After Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and their heirs, bought the Dutch masters direct from the artists and at auction, these sublime paintings became our best ambassadors. They continue to hold this status. In St Petersburg they are accustomed to an audience of millions. They are the darlings of the museum. And what is so wonderful for us is that ambassadors sometimes travel, which is why they can come to the Netherlands. Hermitage Amsterdam is a branch museum of the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg, Russia, located on the banks of the Amstel river in Amsterdam.
