Regional Art Museum named after VP Sukachev Irkutsk - one of the oldest museums in Russia. It is located in the historic center of the city, occupying two buildings. The basis of the museum's collection was extensive art gallery owned by the head of Irkutsk, the chairman of the East Siberian department of the Imperial Russian Geographic Society (VSOIRGO), the largest benefactor - VP Sukachev collected them at the end of the second half of the XIX century.

The first pictures painted by Russian artists, a student of V. Sukachev gained in St. Petersburg in 1870. That is the date traditionally considered to be the year of the creation of an art museum. Over time, among the works were acquired works by Aivazovsky, Repin, Maximova, Briullov Myasoedova, Shishkin, as well as copies of paintings by Western European artists Murillo, Raphael, Correggio and Rubens ordered in the museums of Florence and Munich.

In 1920, the Gallery was nationalized and became part of the City Museum, which was opened in May 1920 During the twentieth century. Irkutsk in the exhibits came from the collection of the State Museum Fund, various public and state organizations, not only in Irkutsk, but also in Moscow.

Currently, the Museum named after VP Sukachev, there are over 22 thousand works of art from different times and peoples. The collection presents a small, but very rare collection of Paleolithic art sites of the Baikal region, as well as one of the most significant collections in Siberia wooden sculptures and icons of XV-XVIII century., Among which the original icon of the Siberian letter.