The history of this department began together with the history of the Museum itself. Its first pieces were a collection of casts. By 1909 the Museum already owned a number of paintings, primarily Italian and Byzantine works. Substantial additions of valuable pieces of art to the Museum's collection led to the 1924 foundation of the Picture Gallery Department and the Sculpture Department, where originals and casts were stored. From 1925 to the 1930s, the Museum received some outstanding Western European painting pieces from the Hermitage collection. At various times, the Picture Gallery Department has been headed by leading academics, such as Nikolay Romanov and Viktor Lazarev. The two departments existed until 1939, when an integrated Department of Western European Art was created, headed by Ksenia Malitskaya.