National Museum of Fine Arts

• Name — National Museum of Fine Arts of Moldova • Native Name — Muzeul Național de Artă al Moldovei • Established — November 26, 1939 • Location — 115, 31 August 1989 Street, Chişinău • Type — Art museum • Director — Auguste Baillayre • Website — http: mnam.md

In 1939, the sculptor Alexandru Plămădeală selected some 160 works by Bassarabian and Romanian artists in order to set up the first Picture Gallery of Chișinău whose director was Auguste Baillayre, painter and professor at Ecolle de Belle Arte of Chişinău. The first museum of Bassarabian fine art was opened on November 26, 1939; its successor became the National Art Museum of Moldova. In the first days of World War II, the art pieces displayed in the Gallery, together with others donated by the Ministry of Culture and Cults of Romania were loaded into two lorries and delivered to Kharkiv; the fate of these collections remains unknown until present.

The building of the museum (architect Alexander Bernardazzi) is a monument in Moldova. It was previously known as Dadiani's female gymnasium. Another department of the museum is located in the Herța House (urban villa), located between Ștefan cel Mare and Sfînt Avenues.

The museum has general and specific exhibitions. Ada Zevin was among those with solo exhibitions in 1960, 1970 and 1980. Other works in the collection include those of Claudia Cobizev.

National Museum of Fine Arts is associated with Moldova. Recorded from 1939.