The Museum has been created on the basis of the Cabinet (museum) of Fine Arts and Antiquities of the Moscow University as an educational and public institution where the most important periods of art history from the ancient times to the new age have been represented: in plaster casts, maquettes, pictorial and galvanic copies, in accordance with the unique scientific program. The Museum became the first institution of this type in Russia. After the Hermitage Museum, the Pushkin Museum owns the largest collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings in Russia.