1QUESTION 1 OF 3
Answer & explanation
Including paintings in storage.
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
17,000
paintings
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
Start with about 300 galleries, maybe half devoted to paintings. How many paintings per room? Call it 50, then guess as many again in storage.
- Painting galleries (half of 300)
- ≈ 150
- Paintings hanging in each
- × 50
- Add as many in storage
- × 2
- 150 × 50 × 2
- ≈ 15,000
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
- Collection, including storage
- Total collection items
- ≈ 3,000,000
- Paintings in the collection
- ≈ 17,000
Reference cited by Fermi: State Hermitage Museum collection statistics (Google Arts & Culture partner page)
How close was your guess?
Your comparison will appear here.
Compare by ratio: divide the larger number by the smaller one. The closer to 1×, the better.