Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery

About

The Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery is the largest art museum in Ukraine, with over 62,000 artworks in its collection, including works of Ukrainian, Polish, Italian, French, German, Dutch and Flemish, Spanish, Austrian and other European artists. The artwork is currently divided into three major collections, housed in the historic Łoziński and Potocki Palaces, while the Gallery additionally has the charge of fifteen small museums and historical buildings in or close to Lviv. The decision to found a municipal gallery of art was made in 1897, with the Lviv Art Gallery first formally opened in 1907. The museum experienced grave difficulties during the early Soviet era and World War II, as the Soviets regarded the existence of anything like a nationally-oriented museum collection with antipathy and distrust. In a notorious episode, the museum's wartime director, Ivan Ivanets, was kidnapped by SMERSH and executed in Russian territory in 1946. During the 1960s and 1990s, under the directorship of revered art historian Borys Voznytsky, the Lviv Art Gallery became a significant museum center with multiple branches. In recognition of the size and quality of its collection, it received its status as the National Art Gallery of Ukraine in October, 2009 and on April 12, 2013, the Lviv National Gallery of

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.