Xenia Rudzite

WORLD MUSEUMS

Xenia Rudzite
Russian paintings in the Latvian National Museum of Art

№4 2012 (37)

The Latvian National Museum of Art has a branch museum, the Riga Bourse Art Museum which opened in 2011 and displays foreign art. The Riga Bourse is also home to a collection of Russian paintings, graphics, sculpture and items of applied arts, which is the largest in the Baltic countries. The history of the collection’s formation dates back to the mid-to-late 19th century. Riga then had two collections of art open to the public – the Riga City Painting Gallery (since 1869) and the “Kunstverein”, or the collection of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (since 1872), hosting works by Russian artists alongside works by artists from other countries. Items reached the Riga collections by different routes.