The Altai State Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1959. Such great museums as The Hermitage, The Russian Museum, The Tretyakov Gallery and a number of local museums took part in forming its collection. Most of it was received from private collections, studios or brought from expeditions around the region. At present there are more than 14000 exhibits - pieces of Russian, Siberian, and Altai art of the 16-20 centuries - in the museum stock.

    The Museum is situated in two buildings in the center of Barnaul. Its main building is an architectural memorial of the 1930s. It's exactly here where the regular exposition opened festively in 1993.

    Various exhibitions (more than 70 fixed and movable shows from the Museum stock, from central and local museums every year) help forming cultural interests and moral principles of the region population.

    Great public response was provoked when the Museum took part in federal programmes "Golden map of Russia" by the State Tretyakov Gallery (2002), "Russia" by the State Russian Museum (2007), and in an international virtual project "Horizons" (Canada, Russia, 2004-2008) which united more than 20 different museums of various subordination level.

    It is one of the leading museums in Siberia that cope with modern informational technologies.

    On the eve of its 50 anniversary the Museum activity was highly appreciated by the public: the staff was given a purse by a charity Altai Culture Fund and won a humanitarian prize from Demidov's Fund.