[2] In 2022 it attracted 2,651,688 visitors, ranking twelfth on list of most-visited art museums in the world.

[3] The museum was established on April 13, 1896, upon enthronement of the emperor Nicholas II to commemorate his father, Alexander III.

Its original collection was composed of artworks taken from the Hermitage Museum, Alexander Palace, and the Imperial Academy of Arts.

The main building of the museum is the Mikhailovsky Palace, the Neoclassical former residence of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, erected in 1819–1825 to a design by Carlo Rossi on Square of Arts in St Petersburg.

The restoration workshop consisted of two sections: the main one, which worked for the Museum, and the regional one, which was engaged in saving cultural monuments in Petrograd and other cities of Russia.

At present, the restoration department is made up of 16 workshops (sectors) for all types of materials, employing, its figures, 95 people.

[11] The Ethnographic Department was originally set up in a building specially designed by Vladimir Svinyin in 1902.

[12] The museum soon housed gifts received by Emperor's family from representatives of peoples inhabiting various regions of the Russian Empire.

Works displayed in the Malaga branch range from Byzantine-inspired icons to social realism of the Soviet era.