The collection of the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus in Minsk is the largest in the country. In total, the museum and its branches house more than 27 thousand unique works of art, grouped into 20 extensive collections.
The first exhibitions were opened to visitors in 1939 with the status of the State Art Gallery under the leadership of the prominent Soviet artist N.P. Mikholap. Most of the artworks came to Minsk from other cities of the Belarusian SSR, or were received as gifts from the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the State Hermitage, and other major museums of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, during the German occupation many exhibits were taken out of the country, and their fate remains unknown to this day.
After the war, the museum's collections once again began to be replenished with masterpieces of painting and sculpture. In 1957 the collection moved to a new, beautifully equipped building, which at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century had to be expanded because of the constant growth of the collections.
Today, the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus offers its visitors the chance to explore exhibitions featuring both the finest works of Belarusian masters and magnificent examples of European and Eastern painting and sculpture of the 15th-20th centuries. Studios operate here, meetings with leading art historians are held, and in the art cafe you can watch films or even attend a musical concert.
