State Russian Museum St Petersburg

The State Russian Museum is the largest depository of Russian fine art in Saint Petersburg. The Museum is a truly remarkable collection of national art, tracing the development of the visual arts in Russia from its origin in Byzantine icon-painting to the richly varied avant-garde experiments of the early 20th century, when Russian art finally exploded onto the international stage.
Today the collection shows Russian art beginning in the 12th century up to the socialist realism and in the USSR the inofficial art of the 20th century. In 1995 the Ludwig-Museum was funded, which is a substantial collection of contemporary art. The collection holds important masterpieces since 1945, amongst others Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso, Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Ilja Kabakow, Jörg Immendorff, Werner Branz and Gottfried Helnwein.