The first exhibition on the occasion of the ХІ All-Russian Archaeology Conference took place in incompleted building of Kyiv City Museum of Antiquity and Art in August 1899.

Official opening and consecration of the institution called Sovereign Emperor Nikolay Aleksandrovich (Nicholas II) Kyiv Art-Industrial and Scientific Museum was held on December 30, 1904.

The facade of the building conveys a neoclassical architecture form – precise reproduction of a six-column porch of Doric order with entablature, triglyphs, metopes and frieze decoration depicting the Triumph of Arts.

Collection of the museum numbers almost 40 thousands exhibits, among which masterpieces of Ukrainian painting, sculpture, and graphics from Kievan Rus' age to nowadays are represented.

The museum has one of the best Ukrainian icon collections which opens with the rare object of the 12th century – polychrome wooden relief "Saint George with hagiography" of Byzantine origin.

Middle Ages are represented with classic examples of icon painting of 14–16th centuries from the Western Ukraine, including the unique antiquities such as Holy Mother "Hodigitria" from Volhynia, St. George The Dragon Slayer, and The Passion of the Christ from Halychyna region.

Small collection of paintings and graphic works by Shevchenko gives a vision of his outstanding talent and shows new democratic tendencies in Ukrainian figurative art, continued by the artists of the next generation.

In soviet epoch boichukists were included into the list of repressed and prohibited painters and only nowadays their art has found a respective place in the museum exposition.

The names of Fedir Krychevsky, Anatol Petrytsky, Tetyana Yablonska, Serhiy Hryhoriev, and Mykola Hlushchenko are inscribed in the golden book of Ukrainian art history.

Covering a large volume of information on museum's past and nowadays and its collections, this album presents the Ukrainian art history in this significant manner for the first time ever.

Some new additions include a unique icon relief of St. George and works by the international Kyiv born pioneer of Geometric abstract art Kazimir Malevich.

[1] Now Museum collects unofficial art works of totalitarian period — Ukrainian underground from the end of 1950 until 1991, particularly artworks by Feodosiy Tetianych, Mykola Trehub, Vudon Baklytskyi, Olena Golub and others.