The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

Yet another museum that just doesn't care about its visitors. The queue was over 1 h long in the morning, with people already queueing long before the museum even opened, yet there was a single desk open! And the person there refuses to sell me a ticket to only the permanent collection, and sold me one to the whole exhibition instead - despite the price list clearly listing both options!

The exhibition itself is quite a joke as well. Yes, it features a fine collection. But reading the description (where present in English) reveals that the most eye catching and unique pieces are all copies! Granted, some are fairly old copies, but many are jusy modern day plaster casts from London and Paris (and some from other European cities). And many copies are very poor too, like Michelangelo's David, which is terribly done and has nothing of the grandeur of the original. Most of the original pieces on display are things you can find in abundance in any museum, like Greek vases - or mediocre paintings.

The only things worth seeing that are not copies seem to be the mummy and their coffins, of which they have quite an excellent collection.

If you can go to the British Museum in London or the Louvre in Paris, go there, they have the originals of the most impressive pieces here. If you can't visit those, coming here might be a decent choice if you don't mind the queue. For paintings, there's better galleries in Moscow even.