Russian Museum, Art museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia
The Russian Museum is an art gallery in Saint Petersburg that preserves more than 400,000 objects across several buildings. The Mikhailovsky Palace and the Benois Wing display Russian painting, sculpture, prints and applied arts from ten centuries.
Nicholas II founded the institution in 1895 and dedicated it to the memory of his father Alexander III. The first holdings came from the Hermitage and the Imperial Academy of Arts.
The museum's name honours Alexander III, and its first director had to be a member of the imperial family. The collection spans about 5,000 icons from the 12th to the early 20th century, alongside works by Andrei Rublev, Dionisy and Simon Ushakov.
The main entrance is in the Mikhailovsky Palace on Square of Arts, with the Benois Wing adjoining it; a passage links the two buildings. The Benois Wing holds the 20th-century and later collections, so plan the route between the two halves in advance. The palace halls keep their Italianate interiors.
The restoration workshops within the complex treat old icons and paintings using scientific methods and traditional procedures. These studios are sometimes open to visitors and show the careful work of preserving the artworks.
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