All language subtitles for Museum.Secrets.S02E01.Inside.the.State.Hermitage.Museum.720p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-TEPES

- [Narrator] St. Petersburg,

a city of riches and revolution,

and at it's heart a museum
with secrets dark and strange.

Rasputin's real killer,

the sex life of Catherine the Great,

a disturbing cabinet of horrors

and punctured skin that reveals
a long forgotten stories.

Secrets hidden in plain sight,

inside the State Hermitage Museum.

(dramatic music)

The Hermitage is one of the
largest museums on earth.

Inside these walls are over three million

treasures of art and archeology.

You can spend days wandering the halls

and see only a fraction

of the museum's magnificent collection.

Far from the public galleries,
in a secluded passage way,

a locked door guards one of
the museum oldest treasures.

It is not a Rembrandt or
Tsar's diamond-encrusted crown.

These are human remains
with skin as black as night.

In 1948, in the Altai Mountains of Siberia

four corpses were discovered
within the permafrost.

Subzero temperatures had preserved

their bodies and their possessions.

With skin blackened but still intact,

they are natural mummies.

Carbon dating revealed they
are over 2,000 years old.

Researchers determined
they were men and women

of an Iron Age tribe
known as the Scythians.

The Hermitage is closed
today, the galleries empty.

Curator of archeology Svetlana Pancevo

will use this time for study

hoping to add to our limited knowledge.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Though little is known about the Scythians

many Russians idolize them.

In popular culture they are portrayed

as freedom-loving riders of the steps.

Some believe they were the first Russians,

a pure race of noble warriors.

Historical evidence
suggests the real Scythians

were savage fighters,

they took trophies on the battlefield.

But their burial mounds also
suggest a more complex culture.

A people with advanced tools

and sacred objects of the finest gold.

And then there is this strange object

in a corner of the museum,

believed to be the skin
of a Scythian chieftain.

He is covered with tattoos of wild animals

and mystical symbols.

When the Hermitage revealed

these fantastic designs to the world,

they caught the attention of Canadian

medical illustrator Dave Mazurski.

- I've never seen
anything like them before

and I just so struck by
how organic they were,

how natural but abstract at the same time

and they just all made sense together.

First time I saw the Scythian tattoos

I decided right away that,
that's what I wanted.

- [Narrator] Dave has covered his body

with the tattoos of
the Scythian chieftain.

He is missing only one, this
illustration of leaping rams.

Dave has come to St. Petersburg
to get the final tattoo.

But first, he plans to
visit his inspiration.

- And I knew that the body
that these designs came from

was here in the Hermitage

and it was kind of a dream
that I would see them.

- There, Dave.

Now, I'm going to show
you the famous tattoo

from the Pazyryk burials,
how it is really looks.

- It's incredible.

I've seen some very
poor photographs of that

but it's incredibly vivid,

much more life-like than
I would have imagined.

- [Svetlana] Is it
resembled to your tattoo?

- Would you like to see
the rest of the tattoos?

- Now?

With great pleasure.
- Would you like?

(both laughing)

I think I should see it.

(both laughing)

- So I don't know if it.
- Oh.

- If it lives up to
the, what you've thought

or what your research indicates
about how they should look

or how they should move.

- I'm sure that when
you move your shoulders

all the animals began
to move, began to jump.

- [Narrator] Beyond revealing
the Scythians artistic side,

Svetlana hopes the tattoos

can tell us more about their society.

- [Dave] Do you have any idea or theories

about what they meant or?

- They could be something like a language.

They had no writing in
their societies, yeah?

And so it was maybe the only way for them

to transfer their traditions.

- [Dave] They made them living stories.

- [Narrator] Like most who
feel drawn to the Scythians,

Dave wishes he could know more about them.

And it turns out the mummies

may have more secrets to reveal.

Recently, a Russian forensic expert

suggested their black skin

might look different under infrared light.

(speaking in a foreign language)

- Thank you for allowing into

this part of the museum to show me.

- Oh, you're welcome.

- It's impossible to see any tattoos here

but you have some technology

that's now allowing you to see them.

- How does--
- Yes.

- How does it work?
- Yeah.

The skin with tattoos
absorbs the infrared rays.

The clean skin without
tattoos it reflects rays

and we can see all that on our monitor.

This mummy has tattoo
on her right forearm,

on her left forearm and also
on her left thumb, here.

- They're so beautiful, so delicate

and impossible to see without that camera.

What's interesting is these designs

seem to be quite different
in a way from the designs

that I've copied from
the other tattooed mummy.

These are more organic,

they kinda flow together
in a different way,

almost a different style.

- [Narrator] The tattoo shows
wild cats and their prey

locked in a circle of life and death.

(speaking in a foreign language)

The design could have been
borrowed from a Chinese traveler.

But anthropological studies
suggest that this Scythian woman

was herself of Asian descent.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Facial structure analysis
has provided further evidence

that the first Russians
were not a pure race at all,

but a multi-ethnic society.

So in a way, it is fitting
that a Canadian like Dave

should have a complete
set of Scythian tattoos.

As a man with skills and enthusiasm,

there is every reason to believe

he would have been welcomed
into the Scythian tribe.

Up next, Peter the
Great's favorite things.

(dramatic music)

Today, the basement of the Hermitage

is littered with shipping crates.

Filled with treasures destined

for a special exhibition in America,

featuring this statue of the
man called Peter the Great.

In St. Petersburg, the
city that bears his name.

Peter the Great still lives,

especially in the hearts of the people.

- Even so many years have
passed since his death,

I still feel myself like in the presence

of the force of nature when
I start thinking about Peter.

- [Narrator] Timofey
Kruglikov is a lecturer

in Russian history.

- For modern science,
he's a god-like person,

and a person who was
able to do enormous work

and had great plans

which here nearly all of
them he got fulfilled.

- [Narrator] 300 years
ago, as Tsar of Russia,

Peter the Great transformed
a swampy fishing village

into this monumental city of stone.

- He didn't hesitate to sacrifice
lives of quite many people

for the sake of his great idea.

St. Petersburg was built
not on stones but on bones

of those who died during
construction and Peter didn't care.

According to the opinion
of Russian peasants,

Peter was the demon,
the child of anti-Christ

or even anti-Christ himself.

- [Narrator] So, is he Peter
the Great or Peter the monster?

That's the Museum Secret.

We begin our investigation
by looking at his true face.

(soft tingling music)

(speaking in a foreign language)

Sergey Nilov is the Hermitage curator

for the Peter the Great collection.

(speaking in a foreign language)

There is a local legend that

when the Hermitage closes for the night,

Peter stands up from his chair
and walks around the room.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Peter is now part of
the Hermitage collection

and what was once his palace,

and perhaps that's
appropriate because he himself

was an avid collector of things like this.

These are only a few of
shocking specimens on display

in the Kunstkamera, Peter's
cabinet of curiosities.

Such a collection suggests an
unhealthy interest in cruelty.

How did Peter the Great developed

such a twisted taste for the bizarre?

As a young man, he toured Europe.

In Amsterdam, against
the advice of his court

he traveled incognito.

He haunted the canals and
back streets of the city.

He spent weeks in the dockyards.

A shadowy figure observing the activities

of sailors and shipmates.

He met with men who traded in dead bodies.

What was he up to?

Peter returned to Russia
stuck in the middle ages

with an obsolete military
and poor subjects

who relied on superstition
to cure disease.

But Peter came back with
a plan for modernization

starting with Russia's Navy.

- St. Petersburg was to become the place

where his Navy program, big Navy program

was to be developed.

- [Narrator] Lionized in Russian movies

as the hands-on Tsar,

he shared the naval skills
he had learned in Amsterdam.

- And everyday after Peter woke up,

he rushed to ship yards, he
worked at least one hour,

he worked at the construction of the ship.

Sometimes as a ship
builder, as a carpenter,

sometimes as an engineer.

- [Narrator] He built advanced ships

that were a match for
those of naval superpowers

like Holland and England.

And then he turned to
the problem of disease.

He ordered his subjects to
learn the new science of biology

as taught to him in Amsterdam

by the great 17th century
anatomist Frederick Ruysch.

Perhaps Peter's greatest
challenge was superstition.

Many Russian believed that deformed babies

were children of the devil.

Peter was determined to
show that such abnormalities

were not to be feared.

- Peter just wanted to
show, to explain people

that these things only can
be produced with nature

and everything has this
or that explanation.

- [Narrator] In this light,
Peter's monstrous collection

does not make him a monster

but that does not mean he was a good man.

Not exactly.

Mary Hamilton, a former
mistress of Peter the Great

was sentenced to death for
killing her newborn child.

She expected Peter to grant her a pardon.

- And Peter came to the place

where execution was to take place,

came up to Mary Hamilton

and whispered something into her ear.

Everyone thought that she
would be released immediately

but Peter loudly said, "Excuse
me, I cannot do anything,

"because you deserve death
sentence according to the law."

And then the executer did
his work, her head was off.

Then Peter took the head,
kissed it, turned it to people

and explained them the
anatomical structure of the neck.

- [Narrator] That is vintage Peter.

A good intention with macabre twist.

Not good exactly but not entirely evil.

We could call him,Peter the Complex

but we suspect in light of
his incredible accomplishments

that history will let him keep
the title of Peter the Great.

Next on Museum Secrets, the sex
life of Catherine the Great.

Even without the art,

the Hermitage would take ones breath away.

And if it looks more like
a palace than a museum,

that's because it was a palace,

the palace of Catherine the Great.

Catherine came to power in a coup

that took her husband's life.

At a young age, she became
absolute monarch of all Russia.

Surrounded by nobles, advisors,

ladies in waiting and armies of servants,

her days were full of
pump and circumstance.

But Catherine found
court life deadly dull.

She complained Russian
nobles were bores and boors.

She longed for smart conversation

with modern European thinkers
like Diderot and Voltaire.

And she was hoping for more
than intellectual stimulation.

She was looking for love.

- So we're standing in front of a portrait

of Catherine the Great,

one of the two emperors who
was actually known as great.

- [Narrator] But to her people,

Catherine needed to
appear regal and strong.

How could she meet and woo
an intelligent handsome man

without causing a scandal?

How could she rock her world
without rocking her empire?

That is Catherine the
Great's Museum Secret.

For starters, she built
a little getaway spot

next to her palace.

Well, little by Catherine's standards.

This is the private refuge
she called the Petit Ermitage.

In the sumptuous interior
she planned to hold

invitation-only dinner parties
with an exclusive guest list

of Russia's and Europe's
best and brightest.

- She wanted to be here alone

or with the closest people of her circle.

Also it was the place
where she could enjoy

the freedom of communication

without taking into account your rank.

- [Narrator] To prove
she herself was modern,

Catherine filled the walls

with cutting-edge European masterpieces.

These works has became the foundation

of the current Hermitage collection.

But to really let loose,

Catherine needed to
solve one more problem.

To hold a dinner party,

she required servants
to serve food and drink,

but servants who saw their
Queen in adult situations

would surely gossip and create a scandal.

How could Catherine solve
this difficult dilemma?

These are the original
plans of the Petit Ermitage

designed under Catherine's direction.

It shows several shafts connecting

a dining table on the upper
floor with machinery below.

In the Petit Ermitage today,

the table and apparatus
are both long gone,

but at Catherine's summer palace
she built a second Ermitage

where similar mechanisms are still intact.

The tables in this posh dining
room look perfectly normal

but they are not.

Below the floor, the tables
are attached to winches

allowing servants to move
them up and down at will.

As each table rises, the
floor retracts automatically.

The mechanics of the system
were completely hidden

from the guests who gathered upstairs

in the baroque splendor
of the dining room.

Each table would be set
but without food or drink.

A guest would write their
order on their plate setting,

then pull a string to alert
the unseen servants below.

(bell ringing)

Kitchen staff would read the
plate and fill the order.

Whatever Catherine's guests
desired would ascend and appear.

Service fit for a king without
a single servant in the room.

After all were replete,

another signal was relayed to the kitchen.

(bell ringing)

Servants lowered the tables
to return the floor to normal.

These elevating tables
worked on the same principle

as the single grand dining
table in the Petit Ermitage.

After dinner, when the
table magically disappeared,

the real party could begin

without fear of gossip or scandal.

- Those parts they could help people relax

and just feel equal, feel that
she is another human being.

They allowed Catherine
the Great to have a look

at the future candidate to
become a favorite of hers.

- [Narrator] Catherine had many favorites,

Count Grigory Orlov, Grigory Potemkin,

Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander
Lanskoy, Platon Zubov,

soldiers and statesmen, young and old,

Catherine love them all.

Legend has it that each
suitor was field tested

by one of her ladies in waiting.

The court's doctor would
ensure he was free of disease.

Only then might he be allowed

to enter the Queen's inner chamber.

Thanks to the ingenious
mechanisms of the Petit Ermitage,

Catherine could be a Queen and a woman.

But though she had many lovers,

she never took another husband.

She may have decided, who needs one?

Next on Museum Secrets,
Rasputin's real killer.

(gun shooting)

The curators of the Hermitage
are famous for the care

they lavish on the museum's masterpieces.

They love every work of art dearly,

all except one that is
not on public display.

Galina Prinseva of the
Department of Russian culture

has no time for it.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Many Russians disdain this drawing

because of the man it portrays.

Can you guess his name?

His likeness was drawn in 1914

by a lady in waiting to
the Empress Alexandra.

Not sure yet?

He came from peasant stock

but was a major player
in the Russian court.

Still not sure?

Look deep into his eyes.

His name is Rasputin.

Portrayed in movies like this
one as the satanic mad monk,

faith healer to the last
of the Russian Tsars.

- Under hypnosis, he could
make you do whatever he wishes.

He must be destroyed
before he destroys us all.

- [Narrator] Rasputin whose dark powers

were said to have kept him
alive even after he was poisoned

was then shocked by brave nobleman

and drowned in an icy river.

Almost everything we know
about Rasputin's death

comes from the memoir of a Russian noble

named Felix Youssoupoff.

Youssoupoff proudly admitted
that he murdered Rasputin

to break his evil hold
over the Empress Alexandra.

The assassination made
him a national hero,

but British author Andrew
Cook doesn't buy it.

With his help, we will
reveal a shocking secret,

the identity of Rasputin's real killer.

- [Andrew] Here we are on the
banks of the Fontanka Canal.

Just over here we have
the Youssoupoff palace

which of course is where
the murder of Rasputin

actually took place.

- [Narrator] Today, Youssoupoff palace

is one of the top tourist
attractions in St. Petersburg.

The basement has been transformed
into a macabre diorama.

- This is the actual
basement room where Rasputin

was shot and murdered on
the 16th of December 1916.

Rasputin is about to tuck into the cakes

and the Madeira wine

both heavily laced with potassium cyanide

but according to Youssoupoff's version,

the potassium cyanide has
absolutely no effect on him.

It was then at this point
according to his own version

that he went upstairs,
brought down a pistol

and shot Rasputin in the heart.

(gun shooting)

The mortally-wounded Rasputin
manages to crawl on all fours

up the wooden staircase through the door

and run across the court yard.

- [Narrator] Is there a
corroborating evidence

for Youssoupoff's story?

In police records dating
back almost 100 years,

Cook discovered photographs

from Rasputin's official autopsy.

Youssoupoff said he shot
Rasputin right through the heart

(gun shooting)

but the autopsy reveals that
one small caliber bullet

passed through his stomach and
another through his kidneys

neither an immediately fatal wound.

And one photograph
reveals something obvious

that Youssoupoff failed to mention.

A larger bullet hole in the
middle of Rasputin's forehead.

- It would have had resulted
in a massive exit wound

to the back of the head

and that would have resulted
in an instant death.

When you actually look at
this, and analyze them,

you see very quickly that they totally

and utterly contradict
Youssoupoff's story.

The real revelation in terms
of the ballistics evidence

is that there are three bullet wounds

caused by three separate caliber weapons

and most interestingly of all,

the final and fatal shot to the forehead

without doubt was caused by
an unjacketed lead round.

And we can see in a braided
mark around the entry wound

that when the entry wound
is actually measured

it could only have been
caused by 0.455 weapon

which is a Webley revolver
which was only carried

by British military officers
during the first world war.

(gun shooting)

- [Narrator] But what would have a Brit

have against Rasputin?

In 1916, World War I was raging,

(canons shooting)

with Germany fighting on two fronts

against the British and French to west

and Russia to the East.

As a former peasant,
Rasputin was horrified

by the deaths of millions
of Russian peasant soldiers.

He urged his empress to
make peace with Germany,

a peace that would mean
a dark day for Britain.

- What would have happened were

that key German divisions
on the eastern front

would have been very quickly transferred

to the western front.

The balance of power then would
have changed dramatically.

There's a very key
awareness I think in London

that this man is effectively
the engine behind this drive

to conclude an independent peace.

- [Narrator] Every British subject

had a motive to kill Rasputin,

and after the fact one British subject

had a connection to the guess.

The first edition of Felix
Youssoupoff's memoirs

shows a collaborator, a
man named Oswald Rayner.

- I believe that his role in this book

was more than actually translating it

from Russian into English.

My own view is that
Rayner's motivation here

was to create a cover story

which in many ways has
survived to the present day.

- [Narrator] According to
recently released documents,

Rayner was a British Secret Service Agent

posted to St. Petersburg
during World War I.

He had motive, opportunity and
a British military handgun.

- The Webley 455 was Oswald Rayner's,

a British Intelligence Officer.

We know that he was by his own admission

at the scene of the murder.

- [Narrator] Rayner could have
watched the Russian nobles

wound Rasputin with their
small caliber pistols.

- Neither of those guns could have caused

that final and fatal wound.

It could only have been the Webley

that was literally in the
hand of Oswald Rayner.

(gun shooting)

- [Narrator] This evidence is, we admit,

purely circumstantial.

But there is one final
piece of the puzzle,

a secret memo recently declassified

sent to British headquarters

by agent Rayner's Superior Officer.

"Our objective has clearly been achieved.

"Reaction to the demise of Dark Forces

"has been well received by all."

Andrew Cook believes taken as a whole,

the evidence speaks for itself.

And as far as he's concerned,
the case is closed.

Up next, the secret of
the disappearing cats.

(cat meowing)

At the Hermitage, one finds
experts in many disciplines,

including this specialist

in the time wanted form of pest control.

Cats have lived here for centuries,

keeping the museum varmint-free.

They are fed and cared for
by dedicated volunteers.

But there was one brief
period in Hermitage history

when cats where nowhere to be found.

The reason for that is a Museum Secret.

The story begins on June 22nd 1941,

when St. Petersburg
was known as Leningrad.

German troops attacked the Soviet Union

and the country has plunged
into the second World War.

Palaces outside the city
are bombed to rubble.

The city is set on fire.

The Hermitage is marked for destruction.

But the Hermitage refuses
to go down without a fight

and a strategy is crafted to
save the museum's masterpieces.

- The most treasured pictures were brought

to the ground floor of
the new Hermitage building

which had specially strong vaults.

It was thought that it's
better to bring them there.

- [Narrator] Valetina
Vacmenieva has been working

at the Hermitage since 1949.

She's a senior lecturer in
the Education Department.

- If it were paintings,

they were put into crates
which were divided with planks.

There was a special cloth which made soft

and each picture had a special place

because the most important
was to make everything safe

and well-fixed during the transporting.

- [Narrator] In just six days,

curators crated half a million treasures.

They packed them into special trains

for transport to safety
in the Ural Mountains.

It was a time of frantic
work and high emotion.

- The Hermitage worker
looks at every piece

which is responsible for
as a teacher his child.

Voltaire went down the main
staircase of the new Hermitage

just as we can see and he smiled.

And people ran to the upper
landing just all in tears

to say goodbye.

- [Narrator] But even after the biggest

art evacuation in history,

there were still hundreds of masterpieces

left in the Hermitage.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Irritated by Leningrad's resistance,

Hitler ordered his forces
to encircle the city

and erase it from the map.

(speaking in a foreign language)

Yevgeny Ukhnalev is a siege survivor

and a retired Hermitage architect.

(speaking in a foreign language)

The defenders of Leningrad
didn't leave their posts

and neither did the Hermitage staff.

They moved into the basement

and the Hermitage cats had new roommates.

- Altogether they had 12
shelters large and small

and about 2,000 people
were in these shelters.

Yes.

Please come in.

We are entering the arid
shelter number three.

You must understand that no
electric light was in this room.

They had to furnish it
just when the war began.

There were chairs, some
tables, beds made of wood.

- [Narrator] Architect Alexander Nikolsky

took out his sketch book

to record daily life during wartime.

These sketches are now part

of the museum's permanent collection.

As the siege dragged on,

curators continued their work

caring for each artifact that remained.

Every window was blown
out by bombs and shells.

The ornate interiors were ravaged

by exposure to the elements.

Museum air wardens cleared
away heaps of broken bricks

and shard flooring after
each bombs struck home.

Everyday spotters made
a long climb to the roof

to look for fires ignited
by incendiary bombs.

Sentry boxes still stand

where gunners waited
for Nazi power troopers

to touchdown in the courtyard.

Leningrad was entirely besieged.

Hopelessness took hold.

Hunger drove some defenders
to acts of desperation.

Horses, dogs, and rats
were slaughtered for food.

Even children were at risk.

(speaking in a foreign language)

At the Hermitage, the beloved
cats disappeared one by one.

After almost 900 days of hell,
the Nazis were beaten back.

The blockade was broken,
the city set free.

In the bloody siege,

over half a million Russians
had lost their lives.

Leningrad was saved because her citizens

were willing to die for their city.

The Hermitage was saved
because her defenders

were willing to die for art.

After the war, the Hermitage veterans

were determined to restore the
museum to its former glory.

Today, the great works are
back, and so are the cats

happily roaming the courtyards
and underground passageways.

They were reintroduced after the war

to repel an invasion pf rats and mice.

The priceless treasures
saved during the siege

are off limits to the cats.

But aside from that, they
have the run of the place.

Next on Museum Secrets,

how a black square
threatened the Soviet Empire.

The Hermitage is filled with
finely crafted objet d'art.

Visitors come to marvel at
complex mechanical wonders.

(crowd clapping)

They are entranced by
the life-like portraits

by the old masters.

And then, there's this.

No, it isn't an empty frame

left over from the siege of Leningrad.

No one has ripped out the canvas

to leave a blank space behind.

It's a perfect square painted flat black

by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich.

So why is it hanging with the masters?

- [Russell] The black
square is so shocking

sitting in the Hermitage

amongst the Rembrandts and
of Rubens and the Van Dycks.

- [Narrator] Russell Smith is a writer

and culture commentator.

- It's a simple dumb black square.

What is it doing among them?

Well, it's just as influential,
a painting, as any of those.

The black square influenced
generations of artists

working in reducing the forms of painting

to their bare minimum,
their bare essentials.

The people who are influenced

by these movements in Russian art

include some of the greatest
art of the 20th century.

This is one of the revolutionary
paintings ever painted.

- [Narrator] Revolutionary it may be,

but you may be surprised
to learn that in 2002,

the Hermitage acquired the black square

for one million dollars.

- That's what this kind of thing

that you think your two-year-old
could do is worth today.

- [Narrator] Why is a black
square worth a million dollars?

To reveal this Museum Secret,

we must return to the blackest
period of Russian history.

(bomb exploding)

Not long after the Bolshevik
Revolution of 1917,

communist ideals were twisted
into tyranny by Joseph Stalin.

- When Stalin came to power,

he decided that representational

soviet socialist realist art

was going to be the official
art of the soviet people

and that was art that
showed pictures of workers

and peasants and soldiers working together

in a very romantic way.

- [Narrator] Stalin decreed art

must be immediately understandable.

It must not encourage
productive workers to think.

And Malevich's paintings made you think.

Stalin hated all of Malevich's work

but he hated the black square most of all.

- The black square is an
idea and Stalin hated ideas.

Stalin hated anything
that he couldn't control.

- [Narrator] Life became
difficult for Malevich.

- Malevich was out of favor.

He was pushed out of all of
his influential positions

and institutions where
he worked and taught.

And he was told that he
could no longer paint

abstract geometric paintings
that were bourgeois.

- [Narrator] By Stalin's order,

Malevich was detained
here along with others

who harbored
counter-revolutionary tendencies.

Branded an enemy of the state,

he was fingerprinted and
locked up without trial

in the notorious Kresty Prison.

Here, under Stalin's
orders political prisoners

were subjected to solitary
confinement and sleep deprivation

to aid with their re-education.

We don't know what Stalin's
goons did to Malevich

but after he was released from detention,

he began painting in a more
politically correct style.

It appeared as if Stalin had won him over.

- He started doing shapes that
look like peasants and horses

but they were very cubist

and they were made with primary colors.

And even in one of his
last portraits of himself,

a self-portrait from 1933,

which is a very life-like portrait,

it's signed with a little
black square in the corner.

The black square represented who he was.

- [Narrator] Malevich's
original black square

was hidden in a potato crate

where it survived under
the post communist era,

or at least that's the
story his family told

when they offered it for sale in 1991.

About the same time, several
other black squares surfaced.

Art experts couldn't tell
which if any was genuine.

But then on the Malevich family's painting

someone noticed fingerprints.

In the 1930s Stalin had decreed
that criminals fingerprints

should remain on file forever.

Malevich's fingerprints were retrieved

and matched to this painting.

Thanks to Joseph Stalin,
we know it's the real thing

which leads us back to
our original question.

Why is this black square
worth a million dollars?

The answer it turns out is very simple,

because these men are willing to pay it.

They are the rich entrepreneurs
of the new Russia,

they value personal freedom
and hate Joseph Stalin.

To them, Malevich was a kind
of a artistic freedom fighter.

So when one of them heard

that the black square was for sale,

they jumped at the chance to buy it.

- It's only very recently
that Russian officials

would have taken seriously
something like this.

They are lucky that they have
started to take it seriously.

They didn't think it was worth anything,

but a similar geometric
abstract painting by Malevich

was sold in New York at
auction at Sotheby's in 2008

for 60 million U.S. dollars.

- [Narrator] When you look at it that way,

a cool million is quite a bargain.

(upbeat music)

In this vast museum that has witnessed

the history of a nation,

for every mystery we reveal,

far more must remain unspoken.

Secrets that lift the human spirit

and those that haunt our darkest dreams.

Hidden in plain sight, inside
the State Hermitage Museum.

(dramatic music)