Museum of Decorative & Folk Art

Just beyond the Garden Ring, this museum showcases the centuries-old arts and crafts traditions from all around Russia and the former Soviet republics. It includes all the goodies you might find in souvenir shops or at the Izmaylovo Market, but these antique pieces represent the crafts at their most traditional and their most authentic. Of the 40,000 pieces in the collection, you might see painted Khokhloma woodwork from Nizhny Novgorod, including wooden toys and matryoshka dolls; baskets and other household items made from birch bark, a traditional Siberian technique; intricate embroidery and lacework from the north, as well as the ubiquitous Pavlov scarves; and playful Dymkovo pottery and Gzhel porcelain. Look also for the so-called ‘propaganda porcelain’ – fine china decorated with revolutionary themes. The museum is known for its impressive collection of Palekh – black lacquer boxes and trays painted with detailed scenes from Russian fairytales. The collection fills two rooms. It features, among others, pieces by Ivan Golikov and Ivan Markichev, often considered the originators of the Palekh style.