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Pushkin Museum

museum of European art in Moscow

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ4872 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (Russian: Государственный музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, romanized: Gosudarstvennyy muzey izobrazitel'nykh iskusstv imeni A. S. Pushkina, abbreviated as Russian: ГМИИ, GMII) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow. It is located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Sviatoslav Richter's December Nights has been held in the Pushkin Museum since 1981.

Etymology

Despite its name, the museum has no direct association with the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, other than as a posthumous commemoration. The facility was founded by professor Ivan Tsvetaev (director of Rumyantsev Museum, and father of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva) in 1912. Tsvetaev persuaded the millionaire and philanthropist Yuriy Nechaev-Maltsov and the architect Roman Klein of the urgent need to give Moscow a fine arts museum. After going through a number of name changes (it was founded as "Alexander III Museum", to honor Emperor Alexander III of Russia), particularly in the transition to the Soviet era and the return of the Russian capital to Moscow, the museum was finally renamed to honour Pushkin in 1937, the 100th anniversary of his death.

History

During the Bolshevik Revolution, works by French impressionists and modern artists were confiscated and then exhibited in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg before being privately stored. In 2019, those works reappeared and some of them rejoined the Pushkin museum. In 1981, the museum held the Moscow-Paris exhibition.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Pushkin Museum” as museum of European art in Moscow. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pushkin, Museum and museum.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1981, 1912, 1937, 2019—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1912-05-31. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Pushkin, Museum and museum providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Pushkin Museum”, the useful work is to connect “museum of European art in Moscow” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4872. VIAF identifies the subject as 122583107. The Library of Congress control number is n97035109. Authority coordinates are 55.747, 37.606. 4 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1912, 1937 and 2019.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pushkin Museum”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pushkin Museum primary sources, Pushkin Museum archive and Pushkin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pushkin Museum”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Pushkin Museum” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.