Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
Designed by architect Roman Klein, the State Museum of Fine Arts was unveiled on May 31, 1912. His founder and director Ivan V. Tsvetaev was the one who issued a subscription allowing the construction of the museum and the acquisition of the first collections.
Famous since its creation as the “Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts”, it was simply renamed “Museum of Fine Arts” after the Bolshevik Revolution. Only in 1937 was it named “Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts”.
Heavily extended in Soviet times, its collection now totals no less than six hundred forty thousand items. This number makes it the largest museum in Russia after the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
Among other masterpieces, the museum hosts an important private collection from Impressionist and Expressionist painters gathered by Sergei Schukin and Ivan Morozov.
The frequent exhibitions hosted by the museum enabled for very prestigious art items to be displayed such as “Gioconda” by Leonardo Da Vinci or “the Treasures of Tutankahmun”.