The Irbit State Museum of Fine Arts is the only Russian museum that specializes in engravings and drawings. Its collection comprises 16,000 works and includes “Penitent Mary Magdalene with Her Sister Martha” by Peter Paul Rubens as well as a study for his painting “The Entombment” that had been kept in the State Hermitage Museum until 1976.
The museum was established as an exhibition hall on January 3, 1972. Its founder was Valery Andreyevich Karpov, an honored cultural worker of the Russian Federation. In 1991, the exhibition hall was transformed into the Irbit Municipal Art Museum. In December 1995, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation recognized its collection as a “national treasure”. In 1997, the museum became known as the Irbit State Museum of Fine Arts.