The Museum of the Hermitage, part of the Museum of Saint-Petersburg in Russia, will open an annex next February by the river Amstel in Amsterdam, in order to show its collections to a western audience.

The director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovski, said the first exhibition to be held at the Amsterdam Hermitage would be a Greek collection: “It will include jewels that originated at the Black Sea, dating back to between the sixth and second centuries BC.” The exhibition will run between 28 February to 29 August 2004

Further temporary exhibition will last for five months and will show exhibits never before seen in Holland.

The second exhibition – between 18 September 2004 and 13 February 2005, will be devoted to the life of the last Tsar Nicolas II and his wife Alexandra, with exhibits of paintings, clothing, photos and correspondence.

By the end of 2007, the exhibition space at the Amsterdam Hermitage will total 4,000sq m. The project has a budget of 39m euros, partly financed by the City of Amsterdam and partly through private donations.