Irina Aleksandrovna Antonova (Russian: Ирина Александровна Антонова; 20 March 1922 – 30 November 2020) was a Soviet and Russian art historian who served as a Director of the Pushkin Museum in Moscow for 52 years, from 1961 to 2013, making her the oldest and the longest serving director of a major art museum in the world.

[2] Irina Antonova was born in Moscow in the family of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Antonov, a ship electrician and then director of the Institute of Experimental Glass, and Ida Mikhailovna Heifitz (died when she was 100 years and 5 months old).

[6] In this capacity, Antonova initiated and organised major international exhibitions, including Moscow-Paris, Moscow-Berlin, Russia-Italy, Modigliani, Turner, Picasso and many others.

[10] Antonova witnessed the entire collection of the Dresden Gallery arriving at the museum from Germany in 1945 and its removal ten years later.

She opposed the return of the collection to Germany, claiming it was a just compensation for the damage inflicted on Russia's cultural heritage by the German invaders.

[2] Antonova was also instrumental in establishing Svyatoslav Richter's December Nights, an international music festival that has been held in the museum since 1981.

[2] A spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "the chances of creating such a museum fall significantly" after Piotrovsky's disapproval.