Russian museum tour

The Russian Museum is the first state museum of the Russian fine art in the country. It was founded in 1895 by a decree of Tsar Nicholas II in the former Palace of Grand Duke Michael. The collection was assembled from country royal residences, the Hermitage, the Academy of Fine Arts and from private collections.

Today the Russian Museum is rivaled only by Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow as the world’s largest repository of Russian and Soviet art.  Nowadays the collection of the Russian Museum numbers some 400 000 works and covers the entire history of Russian fine art from the X century to the present day. It reflects virtually every form and genre of art in Russia, including the unique collection of Old Russian icons, works of painting, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics as well as the world’s finest collection of the Russian avant-garde.