Ulitsa Volkhonka 12
Tel. (495) 697 9578
Subway: Kropotkinskaya
Open: 10am- 7pm Tue- Sun
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Pushkin Museum is the
Russian State Art Museum in Moscow, one of the largest
collections of Western art in modern Russia. Created on the
initiative of historian and archaeologist, professor of Moscow
University I. V. Tsvetaev, the museum was opened in 1912 under
the name "Museum of Fine Arts named after Emperor Alexander III
at the Imperial Moscow University". The main building of the
museum was designed by architect Roman Klein in the neoclassical
style in the form of an ancient temple. Initially, the museum
was conceived as an educational one, but after the 1917
revolution, the institution was transformed into the State
Museum of Fine Arts. In 1937, the museum was named after the
poet Alexander Pushkin. In 1991, the Pushkin State Museum of
Fine Arts was included in the State Code of Especially Valuable
objects of Cultural Heritage of the peoples of the Russian
Federation.
As of 2018, the exhibition consists of more
than 670 thousand objects and includes a collection of casts
from ancient statues, works of art, archaeological finds, as
well as a collection of objects from Ancient Egypt and Ancient
Rome. In 2018, the museum was visited by 1.3 million people,
making it ranked 47th among the most visited art museums in the
world.
1912-1917 — The Museum of Fine Arts named after Emperor Alexander III
at Moscow University
1917-1923 — The Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow
University
1923-1932 — The State Museum of Fine Arts
1932-1937 —
The State Museum of Fine Arts
1937 — present — The Pushkin State
Museum of Fine Arts
At the turn of the XIX—XX centuries, private art galleries appeared
in the Russian Empire, funded by patrons and entrepreneurs. The idea of
creating a Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow University was first proposed
in 1831 by Princess Zinaida Volkonskaya and Professor Stepan Shevyrev,
but the project was not implemented. In 1858, Karl Hertz, a professor of
archaeology and art history, made a similar proposal, but there was no
funding for the project.
In 1894, Ivan Tsvetaev, the father of
the poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, proposed at the First Congress of Russian
Artists and art lovers to create an educational museum. An example was
the "Cabinet of Fine Arts and Antiquities" at Moscow University. The new
museum was supposed to illustrate the development of art from ancient
times to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
On March 12, 1898,
Tsvetaev presented the design of the building of the Moscow Museum of
Fine Arts to Emperor Nicholas II. A preview of the layouts was scheduled
in the royal billiard room, where large layouts could be placed on the
tables. The Emperor approved the project, but allocated only 200,000
rubles for the construction of the building. However, many investors,
having learned about the approval of Nicholas II, also began to give
money for the implementation of this plan. Thus, the Roman Hall was paid
for by the Yusupov princes, and a copy of the Pergamon altar was made by
architect Fyodor Shechtel. Merchant Varvara Alekseeva allocated about
150,000 rubles on the condition that the museum would bear the name of
the emperor's father, Alexander III.
The foundation of the future
museum building was laid at the end of 1898 in the presence of Nicholas
II and his family members. On the same day, a Committee was organized to
organize the Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts. The organization was
conceived as a voluntary one, its participants were supposed to help the
university organize scientific exhibitions, as well as find funds for
its construction. The first chairman was Grand Duke Sergei
Alexandrovich, who has been patronizing the museum since its foundation.
Industrialist Yuri Nechaev-Maltsov, the main sponsor of the museum, was
appointed deputy chairman. Ivan Tsvetaev himself became the secretary of
the committee.
In 1896, Ivan Tsvetaev published the terms of an architectural
competition for the construction of a museum building. It was won by
aspiring architect Roman Klein and chief engineer Ivan Rerberg. In 1904,
a fire broke out in the building, destroying most of the buildings and
more than 175 boxes of casts, including copies from St. Mark's Cathedral
in Rome, ordered shortly before. After the fire, many investors refused
to invest in the reconstruction of the premises, but the building was
restored at the expense of Nechaev-Maltsov. The museum was built by 1912
in the neoclassical style in the form of an ancient temple with a high
podium and an Ionic colonnade around the perimeter of the facade. It
became the last building in Moscow built with neo-Greek elements.
The glass vault was designed by engineer Vladimir Shukhov, who
created unique structures using arched ties so that natural light fell
on the exhibits.
The interior layout corresponded to the museum
exposition: The suite of rooms on the second floor was provided for the
placement of ancient Greek sculptures and ancient art. The rest of the
halls were devoted to exhibitions of objects from Ancient Egypt,
Assyria, works of the Italian and Northern Renaissance. The museum also
had a library with a separate entrance from Kolymazhny Lane. The
interior was decorated with decorative paintings and murals under the
direction of the artist Ignatius Nivinsky.
Tsvetaev was assisted in the design of the museum exposition by
figures of Russian culture: Vasily Polenov, Igor Grabar, Konstantin
Korovin, Alexander Golovin, architect Fyodor Shekhtel, Nikodim Kondakov,
Dmitry Ainalov, Vladimir Golenishchev, Boris Turaev, Dmitry Ilovaisky.
So, the first exhibition presented at the opening of the museum included
casts from sculptures of the early Middle Ages and the Renaissance:
forms were made from the originals of Roman and Greek sculptures, which
were then filled with plaster. This was how exact plaster copies of
figures made of any material were obtained. Among the original items in
the original exhibition were antique vases, a well—known collection of
Egyptian originals and a group of Italian icons of the XIII-XIV
centuries.
According to legend, the first visitor to the still
closed museum was Alexey the stoker, who worked for Ivan Tsvetaev and
asked to show him the museum: at the beginning of the XX century,
commoners were forbidden to enter cultural institutions. The official
opening of the Alexander III Museum of Fine Arts took place on May 31,
1912 in the presence of Nicholas II and his mother Maria Feodorovna, as
well as daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. On the same day,
Yuri Nechaev-Maltsov received the Order of the White Eagle for his
contribution to the development of art, and Ivan Tsvetaev was appointed
the first director of the museum.
A white vision of a staircase
dominating everything and everyone. On the right wing, like a guardian,
it turns into an inhuman and not even divine: Michelangelo's David into
a heroic growth. The guests, waiting for the sovereign, disperse through
the halls. Suddenly there was a ringing, a crash, a fright, a rebound,
silver fragments and streams: it was my father's eighteen—year-old
son-in-law who touched a tray with Caucasian waters, which ran and
sparkled like the springs that gave birth to them. The old men, having
made sure that it is not a bomb, calm down.
Old people, old people,
old people. Orders, orders, orders. No forehead without potholes, no
chest without a star. My brother and my husband are the only ones here
who are young. The group of young grand dukes does not count, because
this is exactly the group: a marble bas-relief. It seems that today all
the old age of Russia has flowed here to bow to the eternal youth of
Greece. A live lesson in history and philosophy: That's what time does
to people, that's what it does to the gods. That's what time does to a
person, that's what (a look at the statues) — art makes art with a
person. And, the last lesson: this is what time does to a person, this
is what a person does with time. But I don't think about it, because of
my youth, I just feel creepy.
From Marina Tsvetaeva's essay "The
Opening of the Museum"
The opening aroused great interest from
the public: in the early years, the average attendance was 700-800
people on weekdays, and 2,500 people on weekends. The main audience of
the museum were teachers, students, representatives of the
intelligentsia and the clergy. Sets of postcards with the halls of the
museum (in particular, the phototype of K. Fischer) were promptly
published.
The collection of exhibits began even before the completion of the
museum. In 1909-1911, the funds included monuments of Ancient Egyptian
art, paintings by Western European artists of the Middle Ages and
Renaissance, as well as works by Russian artists. Masterpieces of world
culture at that time were no longer possible to purchase, so it was
decided to create about two thousand plaster casts of works of ancient
culture. In the early years of the museum's existence, about two
thousand copies were made by order of Tsvetaev.
Since 1894 — even
before the construction of the main museum building — the sculptures
were available to visitors in the former University Hospital Building on
Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, but four years later the exhibition was
closed due to the dilapidation of the building and plans for its
demolition. The casts were in the Rumyantsev Museum and in a warehouse
in the Kolymazhny yard. The first special storages of the museum were
erected in 1904 next to the main building, where sculptures began to be
transferred.
The Egyptian collection was acquired in 1909-1911
from the famous orientalist Vladimir Golenishchev. The collection of
Italian paintings and art objects of the XIII—XV centuries was handed
over by the diplomat Mikhail Shchekin, and Grand Duchess Elizabeth
Feodorovna and Dmitry Khomyakov handed over Italian sculptures of the
XVI—XVII centuries. These collections became the first originals in the
museum's collection. Archaeologist Alexey Bobrinsky gave samples of
French artistic casting of the XVIII—XIX centuries. The remaining items
were purchased from scientists N. Likhachev, Vladimir Shileyko,
Alexander Zhivago and Boris Farmakovsky.
Until the 1920s and
1930s, painting was not represented in the museum exposition. The art
department began to be formed during the redistribution of the country's
museum funds. The art collection of the Rumyantsev Museum also got into
the museum. In 1924, the museum included collections from the former
collections of Heinrich Brocard, Sergei Shchukin, Ivan Shuvalov,
Yusupov, exhibits from the State Museum Fund and museums of Leningrad.
The first regular exhibition of the art gallery opened on November 10,
1924. From 1924 to 1930, the museum included collections of European
paintings from the Ilya Ostroukhov Museum of Iconography and Painting,
the Historical Museum, and the Tretyakov Gallery. The works transferred
from the Hermitage in the period from 1924 to 1930 occupy an important
place in the collection. These include paintings: "Rinaldo and Armida"
by Nicolas Poussin, "Bacchanal" by Peter Paul Rubens, portraits by
Harmens van Rijn Rembrandt, "Still Life with the attributes of Art" by
Jean-Baptiste Chardin, "Satire on Doctors" by Antoine Watteau, as well
as paintings by Peter de Hoch and Sandro Botticelli.
The final
artistic exposition was formed in 1948 after the transfer to the museum
of the collection of the State Museum of New Western Art, created on the
basis of the collections of Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin. The museum
has received more than 300 works by French and American artists of the
late XIX — first half of the XX century. During this period, the museum
included the famous works "Boulevard des Capuchins in Paris" by Claude
Monet, "Blue Dancers" by Edgar Degas, "Nude" by Pierre Auguste Renoir,
"Bridge over the Marne in Creteuil" and two views of the Saint-Victoire
Mountain by Paul Cezanne, "Red Vineyards in Arles" and "Prisoners'
Walk"Vincent Van Gogh, as well as paintings by Henri Matisse, Paul
Gauguin, Pierre Bonnard, Andre Derain and Fernand Leger.
In the
1950s and 1960s, the museum began to receive paintings by artists of
European socialist countries: Xavier Dunikowski, Zsigmond
Kishfaludi-Strobl, Hans Grundig, Corneliu Baba, Fritz Kremer, as well as
Bulgarian, Romanian and Hungarian artists.
After the 1917 revolution, the museum fell into temporary disrepair.
The first exposition was opened in 1920 and was an exhibition of
projects of the monument to "Liberated Labor". Vladimir Lenin was
present at the opening of the exhibition, which confirmed the status of
the museum as one of the main places of cultural life in Moscow. With
the beginning of the NEP in 1921, a workshop was opened at the museum,
which produced sculptures to decorate public places, such as a Girl with
an oar, exhibited at the Gorky Central Park.
In 1924, the museum
was renamed the State Museum of Fine Arts. With the new name, the museum
received a government development plan, according to which the museum
was supposed to become a place of collection of world fine art — up to
this point, the works of art were practically not represented in the
exposition. The work on the creation of the art gallery was entrusted to
scientists Nikolai Romanov, Abram Efros and Viktor Lazarev. In 1932, the
name was changed again — the institution became the State Museum of Fine
Arts, and in 1937 it was named after Alexander Pushkin - in honor of the
centennial anniversary of the poet's death.
With the beginning of
the Great Patriotic War, the museum's art collections were evacuated to
Novosibirsk and Solikamsk. During the battles for Moscow, the building
was severely damaged by bombing, its reconstruction began in 1944 and
lasted for several years. The first post-war exhibition was opened on
October 3, 1946, under the leadership of the museum director Sergei
Merkurov. However, already in 1949, all the exhibits were removed to the
back rooms, and the museum space was given over to an exhibition of
gifts sent to Joseph Stalin for his 70th birthday. The halls were filled
with photographs, carpets and paintings of the Secretary General. After
his death in 1953, the museum exposition was returned to its place. In
1955, an exhibition of the collection of paintings from the Dresden Art
Gallery, taken by Soviet soldiers from captured Berlin and subsequently
restored in the museum's workshop, opened in the halls of the museum.
In 1956, the museum hosted an exhibition of paintings by Pablo
Picasso, organized by his close friend, the writer Ilya Ehrenburg. The
Soviet authorities allowed the event because of Picasso's participation
in the international communist movement, and in 1962 Picasso was awarded
the prize "For Strengthening Peace between Peoples" (the medal was
presented by Ilya Ehrenburg at the artist's estate near Mougins).
Since the mid-1970s, the Pushkin Museum has again become one of the
main centers of Moscow's cultural life. In 1974, the museum exhibited a
portrait of Gioconda by Leonardo da Vinci, brought from the Louvre, in
1975 — more than a hundred paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York.
In 1981, the museum hosted the Soviet-French
exhibition "Moscow—Paris", which exhibited paintings by avant-garde
artists Vasily Kandinsky, Pavel Filonov, Vladimir Tatlin, Kazimir
Malevich. The exhibition, which was very popular, was visited by the
head of the USSR Leonid Brezhnev. After the exhibition, the works of the
Russian avant-garde began to be exhibited without state oppression in
Russian museums and were popular abroad.
On May 31, 2012, the 100th anniversary of the Pushkin Museum took
place. A series of medals and a postage stamp were issued for the event.
On the anniversary day, May 31, 2012, the premiere of Leonid Parfenov's
two-part film "The Eye of God", dedicated to the centennial history of
the museum, took place on Channel One.
In 2021, part of the
museum's exposition underwent restructuring, which caused a sharply
negative assessment by specialists.
On October 5, 2022, an
unnamed square at the main entrance to the museum was named after Irina
Antonova, who served as director of the Pushkin Museum from 1961 to
2013, and after that was president of the museum until 2020.
In 2008, a competition was announced for the construction of new
museum buildings and the reconstruction of the main building of the
museum. It was won by British architect Norman Foster, who was in charge
of the construction of the Mary Axe skyscraper in London.
The
initiator of the expansion was the director of the museum Irina
Antonova. In 2013, Marina Loshak was appointed director of the museum,
and a year later, due to disagreements with the Museum of Fine Arts, the
architect refused to participate in the project.
In the same
year, a new competition was announced, which was won by architect Yuri
Grigoryan, known for the construction of a residential complex in
Molochny Lane, a pavilion for the Born-house exhibition during the
Architectural Biennale in Venice, as well as the cultural center
"Tipografiya". According to his project, an entire block from the
Kropotkinskaya metro station to Borovitskaya Square will be rebuilt into
a museum space. A brass map with the main sights is supposed to be
mounted in front of the main building. The museum will also include more
than 29 new buildings, which will house expanded permanent exhibitions.
The reconstruction is planned to be completed by 2023.
We
proposed splitting this building into two volumes to create permeability
inside the block. In one building there are public spaces — this is the
so—called agora, and the second is the technological building, which
houses restoration, storage — everything related to the internal work of
the museum. The scale of these buildings is dictated by the size of the
site, and the gray color for them is the color of the main building of
the museum. Using such a color scheme is an opportunity to create a
sense of a holistic complex.
Yuri Grigoryan.
In 2018, the
virtual museum town of the State Museum of Fine Arts became the winner
of the International F@IMP 2.0 Festival, held in Germany on May 31 and
June 1, and received a bronze award in the nomination "Virtual Tours and
3D Panoramas".
In March 2020, against the background of quarantine caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the museum combined all its Internet projects, including online lectures and video tours, on a single platform. A virtual 3D tour of the museum's halls, such as the Egyptian Hall, has been made.
2016
Bagatelles is a series of paintings by Vasily Kandinsky.
"Masterpieces of new art. Shchukin Collection" is an exhibition of works
by Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin, Cezanne and Monet from the Hermitage and
the Tretyakov Gallery. Some paintings were brought from foreign
collections: the Netherlands, Greece, France, Monaco and the USA.
"Raphael. The Poetry of the Image" is a temporary exhibition by the
artist Raphael Santi, in which the canvases "Madonna and Child", "Saint
Cecilia", "Angel" were presented. Over 50,000 people attended the event
in 25 days.
2017
"Panticapaeum and Phanagoria. The Two
Capitals of the Bosporan Kingdom" is an exhibition dedicated to the
culture of the state of Eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula. The
Museum exhibited the altar of the goddess Ditagoye, the marble head of
Athena, as well as elements of ancient temples.
"Facing the future.
The Art of Europe 1945-1968" is an exhibition dedicated to post—war
Western European art.
"Yasumasa Morimura. The Story of a
self—portrait" is a temporary exhibition by the artist Yasumasa
Morimura, who works in the genre of appropriation.
"Caprichos." Goya
and Dali" is a graphic series of works featuring the works of Spanish
artists Goya and Dali.
October is an exhibition of works by Chinese
artist Cai Guoqiang, dedicated to the theme of the 1917 revolution. The
exposition was based on two twenty-meter paintings, which were created
by a master in the technique of gunpowder painting.
2018
"From
Tiepolo to Canaletto" is an exhibition of 57 works by Venetian painters
of the XVIII century. The paintings on display include paintings by
Giovanni Pittoni, Luca Carlevaris, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta,
Francesco Guardi and Pietro Longhi.
"Masterpieces of the Leiden
Collection" — the Pushkin Museum presented the collections of American
philanthropists Thomas Kaplan and Daphne Recanati-Kaplan, who collect
Dutch paintings. Particularly valuable exhibits were paintings by
Rembrandt and his students Frans Hals and Jan Vermeer.
2019
"Shchukin. Biography of the collection" is a temporary exhibition
dedicated to the life and work of the collector. Among the exhibited
works were works by Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne,
Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and other
masters. The exhibition has become the most visited in the last 38 years
of the Museum's existence — more than 350 thousand people visited it in
three months.
The museum contains a large collection of casts from ancient and medieval works, the basis of which was created under Ivan Tsvetaev. The exhibits include a cast of the shrine of St. Gertrude, the original of which was in the church of St. Gertrude in Nivelles, destroyed during World War II. The Italian courtyard of the Palazzo Bargello in Florence was completely copied for the museum, as well as columns made of papyrus stalks recreating the image of the Karnak temple.
As of 2018, the collection of Western European sculpture includes about 600 works from the XVI to the XXI century. The museum houses samples of polychrome wooden sculpture of the XV—XVI centuries, works of bronze sculpture of the XVI—XVII centuries, works by French masters of the XVIII century: Jean-Baptiste Lemoine, Philippe Caffieri, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Claudion, works by Auguste Rodin, Aristide Maillol, Emile Bourdelle, Osip Zadkin and others.
The museum's art collection includes more than 350 thousand works,
including works by Durer, Cranach, Rembrandt, Rubens, Tiepolo, and works
by French Impressionists.
The museum's art gallery opened in
1924, but the first original paintings were donated to the museum by the
Russian consul in Trieste, M. S. Shchekin, back in 1910. After 1924,
systematic receipts of paintings from requisitioned private collections
began, previously belonging to the noble families of the Yusupovs,
Shuvalov, as well as major Moscow entrepreneurs, including Sergei
Tretyakov, Heinrich Brokar, Dmitry Shchukin. The works of Western
European artists stored in the Rumyantsev Museum were transferred to the
museum, and the proceeds from the State Hermitage Museum were of
particular importance. The final composition of the art gallery was
determined in 1948, when the Museum of New Western Art was liquidated,
which housed a collection of French artists from the second half of the
XIX — early XX century from the former private collections of Sergei
Shchukin and Ivan Morozov.
The exposition is built in
chronological order and begins with the art of the I—XIV centuries. The
museum exhibits Fayum portraits — examples of easel painting painted on
boards in the burials of the Fayum oasis of the I—IV centuries. There is
also a fragment of a mosaic depicting St. Joseph from the beginning of
the XVIII century — part of the composition "The Nativity of Christ".
These mosaics are among the very rare surviving fragments of medieval
decoration from the Basilica of the Old St. Peter's Basilica in the
Vatican. The collection also includes Byzantine icons of the XIV
century, dating back to the reign of the Palaiologos dynasty: "The
Twelve Apostles", "The Mother of God with the Infant Christ", "The
Annunciation", "Assumption of the Mother of God", "St. Panteleimon".
Italian art of the XIII—XV centuries includes a small but vivid
collection of Italian "primitives". These are altarpieces, triptychs,
images of the Virgin and Child — including the hagiographic icon of the
XIII century "Madonna and Child on the throne." The Sienese (including
works by Simone Martini) and Florentine schools of painting, works by
artists from Pistoia, Naples are presented. The exposition of paintings
by artists of Northern and Central Italy of the XV—XVI centuries is
quite large: "Madonna with Child and Saints" by Vittore Crivelli,
"Madonna with Child" by Perugino, "Baptism of Christ" by Guidoccio di
Giovanni Cozzarelli, works by Botticelli, Mantegna, Bronzino.
The
decorative art collection includes a collection of 16th-century
majolica: a dish depicting the entry of Christ into Jerusalem, Venetian
albarelli, a dish with the coat of arms of the city of Deruta, a plate
with Neptune.
The Spanish Renaissance is represented, in
particular, by Pedro Esparaguez's painting "Archangel Michael Weighing
the souls of the dead." Flemish art of the XVI—XVII centuries is
represented by paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Joos de Momper,
Lucas van Euden, Rubens, Rembrandt, Jacob Jordaens, Antonis Van Dyck,
Frans Sneijders, Jan Feit, Jan Siberhets, Spanish Baroque works by
Murillo and Surbaran.
Italian art of the XVII—XVIII centuries is
represented by the works of Agostino Carracci, Francesco Guardi, Guido
Reni, Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto, Domenico Fetti, Johann Liss,
Bernardo Strozzi and others.
French painting is represented by
works by Claude Callot, Claude Lorrain, Antoine Watteau, Francois
Boucher, Nicolas Poussin, Elizabeth Viger-Lebrun, Ingres, Millet,
Camille Corot, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissaro, Paul Cezanne,
Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac, Pablo Picasso, Henri
Matisse.
The collection also contains works by Russian artists
Karl Bryullov, Ilya Repin, Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva.
The collection of ancient Egyptian exhibits includes about 800 items dating from the 4th millennium BC to the IV century BC. The exposition is arranged in chronological order. The collection includes wooden and stone sarcophagi, reliefs, sculptures, jewelry, papyri, vessels, figurines and amulets. The most valuable exhibits are stone tools of the VI—V millennia BC, slate pallets and painted vessels of the Negada cultures of the I—III centuries BC. Funeral rites, which played an important role in the religious life of the Egyptians, are presented separately. The collection also contains sarcophagi, canopies, funerary masks, figures of ushebti, figurines of gods and the mummy of the priest Jorge, on which a grid of faience beads was found during excavations. In 2022, the collection was replenished with a unique exhibit — a ritual bone rod in the shape of a crescent of the Middle Kingdom era, used by the Egyptians to protect against evil spirits.
As of 2018, the museum's collection of graphics owns about 150,000 items, mostly prints. The collection of the engraving cabinet was transferred to the Pushkin Museum from the Rumyantsev Museum, formed on the basis of the collection of Dmitry Rovinsky. In total, about 40 thousand sheets of Russian prints of the XVI—XIX centuries were transferred to the Pushkin Museum. Later, the museum's collection was replenished with works by Soviet artists. The Museum also presents drawings by Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel, Alexander Benois, Nikolai Ulyanov.
The numismatics department consists of 200 thousand exhibits: medals,
coins, bon, gems, casts from European carved stones. The collection is
based on the collection of coins and medals of the Moscow Imperial
University, which was originally part of the Cabinet of Fine Arts. In
1888, this collection was divided and became the basis of the largest
numismatic collections in Moscow — the Historical Museum and the Museum
of Fine Arts named after Emperor Alexander III.
Since 1912, the
objects of ancient and Western European numismatics of the University
collection have been part of the collection of the Sculpture Department
of the Museum of Fine Arts. By June 1925, the individual cabinets with
coins, medals and casts scattered throughout the Museum were grouped and
decorated by the efforts of the curators as a Numismatic Cabinet located
in the choir of the White Hall. In the 1930s, the collection was
regularly replenished by private collections of collectors A. G.
Golikov, Vasily Rozanov, Evgeny Pakhomov, Alexander Smirnov, V. N.
Stepanov, Alexander Stakhovich. The exposition is divided into four main
sections: Western European, antique, Russian and Oriental. Since 1945,
the Numismatic Cabinet of the museum has been allocated to an
independent department.
1911-1913 — Ivan Tsvetaev
1913-1921 — Vladimir Malmberg
1921-1923 — Vladimir Giatsintov, Acting Director
1923-1928 — Nikolai
Romanov
1928-1929 — Fyodor Ilyin
1929-1932 — Vyacheslav Polonsky
1932-1933 — Boris Etingoff
1933-1935 — Joseph Byk-Bek
1935-1936 —
Alexey Vasiliev
1936-1939 — Vladimir Eifert
1939-1944 — Ivan
Korotkov
1941-1942 — V. N. Krylova, Acting Director
1944-1950 —
Sergey Merkurov
1950-1954 — Nikolai Slonevsky
1954-1961 —
Alexander Zamoshkin
1961-2013 — Irina Antonova — 2013-2020 —
President
2013-2023 — Marina Loshak
from 2023 — Elizaveta
Likhacheva