Russian Government to Fund Pushkin Expansion

MOSCOW—The Russian government plans to spend more than 4 billion rubles ($170 million) to expand and renovate the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Bloomberg reports.

The museum houses Moscow’s leading collection of Western art — comprising approximately 650,000 items, including outstanding holdings of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works — and attracts about a million visitors a year.

According to museum director Irina Antonova, the funding, to be given over three years, “will help us expand and reconstruct the museum as part of plans to mark our centenary in 2012.”

In November, the museum approved plans by architect Norman Foster to add 110,000 square meters (1,180,000 square feet) to its current 40,000 square meters. Antonova said that the total cost of the expansion will be "at least" $400 million, and that the project will require a second phase starting in 2012 that will need additional financing.

The museum is also supported by the Foundation for Support of thePushkin Museum of Fine Arts, a private organization headed by Dmitry Medvedevbefore he became President of Russia.