On M.K. Tenisheva's initiative and resources a new building for her museum collection was erected in Smolensk in 1905. For the public review the museum "The Russian Antic" was revealed in 1909. For the present moment a new conception and structure of the exposition of the reviving history-and- ethnography museum"The Russian Antic" of M.K. Tenisheva have been worked out.

    From 10 000 exhibits of the Tenisheva's museum not more than 4 000 have been preserved for the present. The most serious losses have taught upon the things made of porcelain and ceramics, of glass, of precious metals, of wood. The things from archaeological excavators were lost almost completely, the collection of icons suffered much. Nevertheless,the present condition of the museum collection allows exhibit almost all complexes of available exhibits in thehistory-and- ethnography museum.

    However the restoration of the original collection is not possible because of the lack of essential quality of things. The reconstruction ofthe museum "The Russian Antic" supposes modern solvation of the expositional problem and modern museum infrastructure. On a basic there is an idea of the historical interconnection of the various aspects of the Russian applied art and things of ethnography nature. Among the future museum tasks there's maximum public presentation of the collection of the history-and- ethnography museum of M.K. Tenisheva; the creation of theexposition devoted to the life and activity of M.K. Tenisheva; the creation of the center on research and propaganda of the Tenisheva's legacy

    The building in which the new museum is to be housedis a work of art itself. It was built in 1903 - 1905 on the project of S.V. Malutin; M.K. Tenisheva and V.M. Vasnetsov, the painter, took part in its working out. It's one of the best works of the Russian Revival Architecturein the Smolensk Region. The main volume is a two-stored cube withvolts and a mezzanine floor oriented to the yard. From the West the lower volume of the foyer sides with the main volume (the foyer's facades are decorated on the project of the arts men A.P. Zinoviev and V.V. Beketov). The walls have facade brick-work. The color plays theleading part in the facade decoration. Between the pedestal and the first floor there's a belt of green majolica slabs; between thefirst and the second floor there's a wide belt of various ornamental lines of shaped brick-work. The original frieze, the scissors-shaped cornice of the foyer and the wide shaped plat bands of the big windows at the Southern and Northern facades are laid out with white bricks. The majolica included in the big keel-shaped tympanum above the main entrance contains the monogram of M.K. Tenisheva - "MT", the date of the beginning of the museum's erection (1903) and the stylized inscription "The Russian Antique" interlaced with plant ornament. For the first time the color scale was crowned with stained glass in the window-sashes of the multiple outline worked by the sketches of M.K. Tenisheva, and with the tiled roof. There are 8 expositional halls inside of the building. They are connected with big arches. Their roof lies on small brick vaults rested on beams. They have no door panels