Pashkov House in Moscow

About museum

In May 1862 the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums took up residence in the Pashkov House. Their basis comprised the collections of Moscow University and the collection and library of Count Nikolai Rumyantsev, which had been transferred from Saint Petersburg. Besides the library, the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums included departments of manuscripts, rare books, Christian and Russian antiquities, fine arts, ethnography, numismatics, archaeology, and mineralogy. The Imperial family presented to the museum part of their personal libraries, examples of decorative and applied arts and paintings, including Alexander Ivanov's painting 'The Appearance of Christ to the People.' In 1870 the museums' then-director, Vasily Dashkov, concerned about the dilapidated condition of the museum building, informed the Minister of Public Education that the allocated funds were insufficient and that he 'was forced, through the lack of any monetary resources, to appeal for private assistance in the person of the merchant A. Zakharov.' With the patron's money the facades of the Pashkov House were repaired and barracks for the staff, rooms for the offices and apartments for the museum caretaker were built. From 1925 to 1927 the restoration of the Pashkov House was carried out by several architects, including Alexey Shchusev.