If you've ever wanted to go to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and changed your mind once you saw the ticket lines — the museum has a great Christmas present for you: online ticket sales.
You can buy tickets for both temporary exhibitions and the permanent collections in the main museum building and the Museum of 19th and 20th Century European and American Art. (The permanent collection in the Museum of Private Collections is not open for viewing at present because of reconstruction.)
They've made it easy for you. You can use Visa and Mastercard credit cards from anywhere in the world using any currency and will get an an email confirmation. Best of all, the tickets are good for up to five days after the date of purchase — and you get to jauntily walk past the long lines of people standing in the rain, snow or slush to go into the museum buildings through special entrances. Bring your email confirmation and proof of identity — to make sure your nasty neighbor hasn't stolen your ticket — to the special cashier's desk, and you're in. Go enjoy art.
Right now, the "Buy a Ticket" button on the museum site is in English, although the specifics are still in Russian.
Hit the button and catch an incredible exhibition — Caravaggio and his followers: Paintings from the Roberto Longhi Foundation in Florence and The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts — before it closes on Jan. 10. Or go to the Museum of 19th and 20th Century European and American Art to ooh and ahh over one of the greatest collections of impressionists and post-impressionists in the world.
12 Ulitsa Volkhonka. Metro Kropotkinskaya. Open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thurs. to 9 p.m., closed Mon. 495-697-9578, arts-museum.ru.
