Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art

The museum was founded in 1923 and it is housed in a palace that was constructed between 1856 and 1858 to a design by the architect Otton. The museum’s collection was created from previously private collections that were augmented by artefacts from the City Museum of Fine Arts and University of Odessa.nIts storerooms became known when two tronies by the painter Frans Hals were discovered languishing there in 1958 by Irina Linnik, who recognized them as the lost paintings by Hals of the evangelists Luke and Matthew. These two were once part of a foursome described in 18th-century auction documents. She traced their history back to the 17th century, and after her work was published in 1959, the other two of John and Mark were also rediscovered.