The Donetsk Republican Art Museum was founded in the city of Stalino on September 23, 1939 as the Museum of Fine Arts. The basis of his collection consisted of works performed by artists from Moscow and Leningrad commissioned by the Stalinist Executive Committee, which came from the All-Russian Cooperative Partnership of Artists, as well as paintings transferred from the All-Ukrainian exhibition “Blossoming Ukraine”. In 1940, the museum’s collection was replenished with works by Russian and Ukrainian authors of the 18th and 19th centuries. from the funds of museums of Ukraine, as well as from Leningrad - from the State Russian Museum and the Leningrad Purchasing Commission.
In 1941, the museum ceased to exist due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and Hitler's occupation of the city, and its collection was looted. In 1958, a department of fine arts was founded in the Stalin Museum of Local Lore, and in 1960 the museum was revived as the Stalin Art Gallery (since 1965 - Donetsk Regional Art Museum). From the pre-war collection in 1975, nine works were returned to the museum, saved by local artist Evgeny Greulich, so its modern collection was formed from proceeds from republican and all-Union art exhibitions, as well as from the funds of state museums of the USSR: the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Museum of Fine Arts. . A.S. Pushkin, the State Hermitage, the State Russian Museum, museums of Ukraine, as well as through active acquisitions of works from private collections and gifts from artists.
Over the years, the holdings have accumulated several full-fledged collections, which delineate the nature of the permanent museum exhibition. Today the museum's collection includes about 16,000 works of painting, graphics, sculpture, and decorative and applied art. The collection of Western European art of the 16th-19th centuries, which consists of works by artists from Italy, Holland, France, Germany, and Spain, has a high level. One of its sections introduces works of ancient applied art.
The pride of the collection of Russian art is a valuable collection of icon paintings and early printed books, portrait painting of the 18th century, works by O. Kiprensky, I. Aivazovsky, I. Shishkin, F. Vasiliev, A. Bogolyubov, V. Serov, V. Surikov, Z. Serebryakova , K. Korovin, S. Sorin, A. Kuprin, R. Falk, P. Konchalovsky and many other famous authors.
A significant place in the museum is occupied by a collection of Western European and domestic original and printed graphics, numbering about 10,000 sheets. These are highly artistic works by A. Savrasov, I. Shishkin, S. Sorin, V. Shukhaev, A. Benois, A. Yakovlev and other masters.
In the collection of decorative art of the 19th-20th centuries. works of both Ukrainian folk art and traditional Russian artistic crafts are presented, as well as works by modern Russian masters of ceramics, porcelain, and art glass.
In 2014, due to the outbreak of hostilities and a car explosion in the immediate vicinity of the museum, the glazing of the facade was partially damaged. The exhibition was dismantled and placed in stock premises. In 2015, after the proclamation of the Donetsk People's Republic, the museum received a new status - the Donetsk Republican Art Museum and resumed its activities, exhibiting exhibitions of local artists and thematic exhibitions (in photocopies) provided by museums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ryazan. As free humanitarian aid, a large number of scientific catalogs, albums and other publications were received from most museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg into the museum’s scientific library.
In 2017-2018 Museum employees took part in the International Festival of Museums “INTERMUSEUM” in Moscow. The State Russian Museum (SRM) in St. Petersburg provides great support to the museum's research staff, providing our employees with specialized internships in various areas of museum activity free of charge. The State Russian Museum also provided its content introducing its rich collection for the work of the museum Media Center. Online, museum staff regularly take part in webinars, seminars, and discussions organized by Russian museums. In 2019, at the celebration of the museum’s 80th anniversary with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Donetsk People’s Republic, colleagues from museums in Moscow, Kuibyshev, Samara, Astrakhan, Ryazan, and Kaliningrad came to congratulate our museum. In 2021, the museum held an international conference “Museum Pedagogy. Experience, resources and motivation”, at which colleagues from both the DPR and Russian museums spoke.
In 2020, the permanent exhibition of the museum was restored, which made it possible to provide visitors with a large excursion, lecture and educational platform. In 2021, the museum underwent renovation work with the replacement of large windows along the facade, and also opened an exhibition of icon painting “Speculation in Colors”, for which new equipment was developedtion and lighting. In February 2022, the re-exposition of the hall of ancient art with new equipment and lighting was almost completed.

Due to the escalation of hostilities on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, on February 19, 2022, the museum's exhibition was dismantled and stored in storage facilities. On March 14, 2022, as a result of shelling of the city of Donetsk in the immediate vicinity of the museum, window blocks and partially the walls of the interior were damaged.
Despite these circumstances, the management and staff of the museum are at work, and the necessary safety measures have been taken to preserve the collection.

Museum director
Gennady Vladimirovich Polyansky