occupation (1947–1948) On 30 December 1947, King Michael I was forced to abdicate by the communists. At that point, the new government had control of the palace which was then uninhabited by the royal family. On February 13, 1948, the new government held a meeting in which the destiny of the palace would be decided while an inventory of the royal goods was taking place. There were multiple requests for different functions the palace could serve, from the location of the University of Medicine to the headquarters for the National Union of Romanian Students. On May 26 that year, decree number 38 was issued, in which the Presidium of the Great National Assembly of the People's Republic of Romania decided that "all goods and estates that were found from the date of March 6, 1945 in the possession of the former king Mihai and other members of the former royal family shall be passed into the possession of the Romanian state." Finally, on June 18, 1948, the Council of Ministers has decided that the Cotroceni Palace, its "five bodies, 150 rooms, park, the property of the state" would be placed under the administration of the Ministry of Interior. The same decree stipulated that other valuables found within the palace would be redistributed among various ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health. After the new administrator of the palace has settled in, around 1,000 objects, including paintings, sculptures, icons, furniture, rugs, draperies, dishes, and other decorative items were missing. They were taken by the Ministry of Art and Information at the proposal of a special commission "to take objects of art from the Cotroceni Palace." The majority of the remaining objects were redistributed to various institutions and organizations, including the press arm of the Ministry of Art and Information, the "Bee" Society (Societatea "Albina"), and the restaurant union "Ambasador". The "Pioneers' Palace" (1949) On April 30, 1949, a school children's program called the "Pioneers" was about to receive its first group ceremony, which would mark a moment in the Cotroceni Palace's history in which it would be re-purposed for the use of these children who were preparing to become "dignified citizens devoted to their homeland and The Romanian Worker's Party." It was around this time when the Cotroceni Palace took on another name – Palatul Pionierilor, known in English as The Pioneers' Palace (also known as young