The Sold Treasures of Russia: The History of the Sale of National Artistic Treasures

The book tells how the Soviet government devastated museum collections, churches, and libraries — the construction of a new empire required enormous funds that needed to be urgently obtained by any means. National treasures, gathered over centuries by generations of Russian emperors and collectors, were sold abroad. How many works of art ended up in the National Gallery of Washington, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and many other world museums? The authors demonstrate the colossal scale of the sale of Russia's cultural heritage, which was on the brink of a cultural catastrophe in the first third of the 20th century.