From an antique amphora to the canvases by Van Gogh and Picasso - the golden fund of world cultural heritage is in the collection of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.
The History of the Museum
The museum was opened to the public in 1912 as the Emperor Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts at the Imperial Moscow University. At that time, it fund was based on the collection of the Cabinet of Fine Arts and Antiquities of the Moscow University, which consisted of antique vases, a numismatic collection, casts from ancient sculptures and a special library. At the end of the 19^th century, original works of art and culture of ancient Egypt were purchased specially for the museum. In the same period, the planned development of the museum began in order to create a collection that would illustrate the history of European art from antiquity to modern age.

The Collections of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
At present, the total number of artifacts stored in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts makes about 670,000 units. These are paintings, graphic artworks, sculptures, applied arts, archaeological monuments, numismatic monuments, photographs, and memorial objects.
There are four types of expositions at the Pushkin Museum now.
One of them is the exposition of casts taken from the originals in European workshops specifically for the museum collection. These high-quality replicas give a great chance to get acquainted with the works of art - ancient sculptures and sculptures of Western Asia, the Middle Ages, and the Italian Renaissance – kept in other famous world museums.

The next exposition consists of the original works of art and culture of ancient civilizations. Many of them are the finds of the museum’s archaeological expeditions.
Here is a unique exhibit - the treasure, which was found by the German scientist Heinrich Schliemann during excavations in Troy at the end of the 19th century. It was believed that this treasure was lost during World War II. In fact, it was evacuated from Germany to the Soviet Union and was kept in the museum’s storerooms in strict secrecy.
The art gallery of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts presents paintings by artists of the VIII-XX centuries. There is a collection of Byzantine icons and ancient mosaics, as well as the works by Botticelli, David, Poussin, and Cranach. Some masterpieces, such as The Madonna with the Child and Two Donators and The Madonna with the Child on the Throne came to the museum from European galleries after World War II.

The gallery of European and American art of the 19th - 20th centuries displays paintings by impressionists and post-impressionists: Gauguin, Picasso, Van Gogh, and Matisse, along with works by European and American artists and sculptors of the 19th-20th centuries.
The exposition has a specific order: particular national schools and artistic eras are presented separately here. For example, there are such halls as “Art of Germany and the Netherlands of the XV-XVI centuries”, “Dutch School of the XVII century”, “Italian Patio”, and “Greek Patio”. In addition to the masterpieces contained in them, these halls attract with their own architecture that echoes the elements of the Athenian Acropolis and the Bargello Palace.

Last but not the least, is the Personal Collections Department. It keeps the integrity of private art collections, which got to the Pushkin Museum in one way or another.
In 1991, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts was included in the State Code of the Most Valuable Cultural Heritage Sites of the Russian Federation.
Where: the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts at the address 12, Volkhonka Street, next to the metro stations Lenin Library, Borovitskaya, and Kropotkinskaya.
Open hours: from 11 am to 8 pm on Tue, Wed, Sat, and Sun;
                     from 11 am to 9 pm on Thu and Fri.
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