PARIS.- For the opening of its new rooms, the Pinacothèque de Paris has organised an exceptional exhibition around a major theme: the birth of a Museum. Through May 29 2011, the Pinacothèque de Paris displays the treasures of the Romanovs, a unique ensemble consisting of a hundred works from the Hermitage Museum in Saint-Petersburg. Assembled since the end of the 17th century, the Russian imperial collections have quickly become part of the largest European collections. As early as 1785, Count Ernst von Münnich declares: “The foreigners and visitors eager to know the country who have been given the opportunity to see the vast and rich galleries of paintings all agree on their magnificence. The chronological