The Hermitage Rooms

Before the BBC drags us overboard on the RA's Russian biggy next January, don't forget that London's Somerset House regularly borrows artworks from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and displays them in The Hermitage Rooms. Its current exhibition - last day 4 November 2007 - is France in Russia: Empress Josephine's Malmaison Collection, purchased by Alexander I in 1815. ("Bad House"? Naughty Josephine!) The exhibition includes this sublime marble statue by Antonio Canova: Dancer (1806-12) which is worth a visit in itself.