In 1893, Victor Hoving [sv], Herman Antell [fi], and Karl Emanuel Jannsson made significant contributions to the organization.

That same year, the Ateneum art collection and Sinebrychoff Museum were closed due to the Winter War.

They also maintain and develop Finland's largest collection of art and the knowledge and research archives of their field.

The Ateneum is a predominantly Finnish Art Museum with paintings by leading Finnish painters like Albert Edelfelt, Eero Järnefelt, Helene Schjerfbeck, Pekka Halonen, Hugo Simberg, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, and Fanny Churberg.

The Sinebrychoff Art Museum has foreign paintings by painters such as Giovanni Boccati, Giovanni Castiglione, Govaert Flinck, Rembrandt, Jan Cook, Goyen, Carl Wilhelm de Hamilton, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Jurgen Ovens, Frans Wouters, Hieronymous Francken the Second, Joshua Reynolds, Antoine Watteau, François Boucher, Carl Von Breda, Alexander Roslin, and Jacob Bjorck.