Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts II Mashkov was opened in 1963 and today is one of the largest cultural centers in the region.

The first art gallery in the city was created in the beginning of 1918. But following the revolutionary events and the Civil War almost twenty years, we left the city without a museum. Only in 1938 in the Lutheran Church of the Volga Germans re-opened art gallery. Despite the relatively small collection (a little more than 300 works), the collection was unique and included works by Ilya Repin, Ivanov, I.Shishkin, Surikov, Mikhail Vrubel, K. Juon, engravings by European artists, objects of decorative and applied Art from China and Europe. During the Great Patriotic War as a result of heavy bombing museum was destroyed, the fate of the works is still not known. There is evidence that the collection was burned during the evacuation, but documenting this version could not be found.

The idea of ​​the necessity of opening the museum various cultural and art workers have advanced more than once. So, in June 1963 Volgograd regained Art Museum. It handed over two thousand exhibits of the largest collections of Russia, among them works I.Kramskoy, F.Vasileva, Alexander Benois, Konstantin Korovin, Ivan Aivazovsky. The museum develops a connection with the known repositories of art treasures of Russia, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Hermitage. The exposition is replenished by its own museum acquisitions, proceeds from the art fund management, collection development Volgograd artists. Special pride of the Volgograd Museum visitors experience when meeting with a collection of native Volgograd II Mashkov. In October 2010, the museum was named I.Mashkov.

A major contribution to the expansion of the exhibition has become a gift to the museum in 1980, the collection of N. Zaitseva Arning, who got it by inheritance. Along with the collection of the museum were working V.Serov, F.Malyavina, Ivan Shishkin, Roerich, V.Makovskogo, S.Zhukovskogo, only 38 works.

Today the museum exposition includes more than 8.5 thousand works of painting, drawing, arts and crafts and sculptures.