23 октября 1972 года в Эрмитаже открылась выставка произведений искусства из коллекции Арманда Хаммера

A healthcare professional by training, a businessman by skills, an adventurer by nature, Armand Hammer was a great friend of the Soviet Union and used to derive million-worth profits from this friendship. By no means everyone is able to make friends so profitably: back in 1921, hungry Russia used to pay for American grain with furs, caviar, and, which is most important, with the priceless “treasures of the Romanovs,” such as paintings, silver, Fabergé masterpieces that Hammer was entitled to sell in America. And he sold them. Besides, the number of the famous Fabergé eggs that he sold was much larger than the number he had exported: the name plate also fell into his unscrupulous hands. Later, the trade resumed – funds were needed to industrialize the country. The sold and exported items returned in 1972 for a short time – as an exhibition. Thus, Soviet people saw the price for industrialization with their own eyes.