10 Art Museums in Moscow That You Shouldn't Miss

The State Tretyakov Gallery is the national treasury of Russian fine art and contains more than 180,000 works of painting, sculpture and graphics created by generations of Russian artists.

The museum is devoted to the life and works of the famous Russian composer, Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915).

The museum of Russian icon was founded in 2006 on the initiative of the patron and businessman Mikhail Abramov. It is a unique in Russia private collection of Byzantine and Old Russian art that obtained the official status of public museum and became member of the IСOM (International Council of Museums). Every day the Museum organizes free survey and thematic excursions for all comers, museum consultants are always available, a lecture centre is operated, concerts and presentations are organized. The subject of the excursion, the date and time of its conduct are agreed in advance by phone. We are always happy to see in our Museum everyone who is interested in Russian culture.

It is one of the largest private collections of the world's cultural heritage, the repositories of which hold over 20 000 items. The basis of the collection is built up with a great range of exhibits - self-playing musical instruments and mechanical rarities, among them are music boxes, organs, orchestrions, street organs, mechanical pianos and grand pianos, gramophones and phonographs, accordions, clocks and automata. The Museum houses a great variety of items of art and crafts, paintings and drawings, a comprehensive collection of Russian bronzes, including small statuary of illustrious artists of the 19th – 20th centuries, as well as the collection of old Russian and Foreign silver, glass and crystal.

A dazzling array of treasures from the 4th to the 20th century are housed in this Kremlin museum, including thrones and carriages of the tsars, the works of Moscow silver and goldsmiths, arms, jewels, precious Russian Easter eggs and other Russian and foreign decorative arts.

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Russian: Музеи изобразительных искусств им. А.С. Пушкина) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Svyatoslav Richter's December nights has been held in the Pushkin museum since 1981. The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts holds one of Russia's largest collections of foreign art from ancient times to the present day. Its modern presentation introduces visitors to the Museum's extensive study collections of toned plaster casts reproducing works of Graeco-Roman art, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The Museum also houses original paintings and sculpture, drawings and examples of decorative and applied art. In the halls on the ground floor original works of art are displayed from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome, together with European paintings ranging in date from the 8th to the 8th centuries. Two halls, known as the Italian and Greek Courtyards, contain casts. The halls on the first floor display for visitors casts of art works from Ancient Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The halls, hung with paintings, exhibit works of art from the 19th and 20th centuries. Known for its outstanding temporary exhibitions, this museum also has an impressive permanent collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art.

New building of the Tretyakov Gallery at 10 Krymsky Val houses a unique museum exhibition of modern Russian art features works by Chagall, Kandinsky, Malevich and other 20th-century artists. In the same building there is the Central House of Artists, and around there is a Sculpture Park.

Once you've perused the Pushkin Museum, stop in next door to view the treasures in these private collections acquired in Soviet times, including works by Salvador Dali and Henri Matisse, ballet set designs, Russian icons and a whole floor of 20th-century art.