Art: Golden Daggers

When an empire falls, its riches are the more readily seen from its ruins. So with the empire of Russia. The Soviet Government, to refute charges of looting, has thrown open to public view the Hermitage, Leningrad, renowned Museum and Art Gallery of the Romanoffs. Once more is revealed the enormous wealth, hoarded through centuries, on which the old regime rested. In the Hermitage are exhibited 45 of the greatest paintings of Rembrandt and a collection of Persian objets d’art that is indubitably the finest in the world, both in the number and the quality of the pieces. Golden daggers from Turkestan, jade seals, incense-burners embellished with rubies, pots set with a thousand emeralds, and blades from Damascus curved like evil moons−the treasure of a fairy-tale empire that came to an end, as is the way with fairy tales−and empires.