The Tula Museum of Fine Arts was opened in 1919. Since 1964 the museum collection has been displayed in a building, erected by Tula architect P.M.Zaitsev's project. Nowadays, the Tula Museum of Fine Arts is one of the biggest museums of Russian Federation. Its collection constitutes about 23 000 works of painting, graphics, sculpture, decorative and folk art.

    A gem of the museum are the paintings of prominent Russian artists of the 16th-20th centuries such as A. Antropov, V. Borovikovsky, V. Tropinin, I. Aivazovsky, I. Shishkin, V. Surikov, V. Polenov, B. Kustodiev, V. Serov, K. Korovin; the avant-garde artists of 1910s - 1930s such as, V. Kandinsky, K. Malevich, A. Rodchenko, L. Popova, A. Kuprin, P. Konchalovsky, D. Shterenberg; and works of many masters of the subsequent decades including those of Tula artists. The collection of Western European art of the 16th-19th centuries has great artistic significance.These are works of famous masters of Italy (L. Bassano, O. Sammakkini, L. Giordano, D. Fetti), Holland (C. Molenaer, J. Vonck, G. Flinck, J. Gillemans), Flanders (D. Seghers, F. Snyders, D. Teniers Junior), France (C. Vernet, E. Le Sueure, H. Robert).

    The permanent exhibition shows sculptures of Russian and European masters together with beautiful examples of glass and china made by leading Russian and European factories.

    The museum conducts research work and various forms of educational activities for adults and children. The collection of Tula museum is well known not only in Russia but also abroad. Many works were on display at exhibitions in the United States, Sweden, Germany, France and Spain