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In the 1930s, Stalin sold off the collection's best works. With pain in their hearts, the Hermitage-niks reflect upon this black mark on the history of the museum. If the works had not already been sold, they were hidden, buried away in the bowels of the Hermitage. This is what befell the wonderful paintings of Monet and Matisse. Stalin and his cronies looked at them as "capitalistic, depraved art." But the Hermitage-niks gave the censorship commission a taste of their own medicine.