The State Russian Museum is home to the world’s largest collection of Russian Art. It was opened in 1898, by decree of Tsar Nicholas II, and was the country’s first state museum of Russian fine art. Housed in four palaces, the collection consists of over 400,000 objects including 70,000 oil paintings. It covers the history of Russian fine art from the tenth century to the present day. It reflects virtually every form and genre of art in Russia, including a unique collection of old Russian icons, paintings, graphic art and sculpture, decorative and applied art, folk art and numismatics, as well as the world’s finest collection of Russian avant-garde art.