Lviv is one of the most romantic cities of Eastern Europe and it has an art collection to match. The Museum was founded as a municipal museum early in the twentieth century, when the city magistrate acquired several private art collections, but the bulk of the museum’s display is as a result of the Soviet policy of the nationalisation of private property when much of the art belonging to the once wealthy Lvivian aristocracy came into the possession of the state. The gallery’s Dutch paintings are particularly noteworthy but there are also some wonderful works of the Italian Renaissance as well as examples of Soviet Realism.