The State Museum of Fine Art named after Alexander Pushkin is one of the largest and most significant museums in the Russian
Federation.
Pushkin Museum was opened in the year of 1912. The first museum was founded based upon the Cabinet of fine arts and ancient items in the
Moscow State University. It was going to be a public storage for copies of classical pieces of world art. The initiator was the university professor
I. V. Tsvetaev, who became the first director of the museum. The construction was started in 1898.
It took 14 years to complete the construction.
The museum was officially named after Alexander III and opened its doors to the public in May of 1912.
In April of 1923 the Soviet authorities decided to organize a central museum of western art
on the basis of pieces of art coming from different collections. The first picture halls were opened in 1924.
In 1932 the museum was renamed into the State museum of fine art and
in 1937 it got the name the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
During the WW2 the collection of Pushkin Museum were evacuated
to different cities in Siberia. In 1944 the reconstruction of Pushkin Museum building was started as
it suffered a lot during bombing. The first
post-war exhibition was opened in 1946.
Nowadays the collection of Pushkin Museum numbers more than 560 thousand
pieces of art including graphic arts, sculpture, crafts,
numismatology and archeology monuments, artisitc photography.
Since 1980 there is also an annual festival of music and art in Pushkin Museum.
Opening hours: daily from 10:00 till 18:00, closed on Monday.
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