An exhibition of rare icons has opened at Moscow's museum of ancient Russian culture, named after one of the best known icon painters Andrey Rublyov. The current display features 140 works by various artists.

Named “Six Centuries of Russian Icons”, the exhibition shows a wide variety of art pieces.

There are icons by a Russian artist of the 17th century – Simon Ushakov, as well as religious works in a modernist style, created less than a century ago. But all the displayed items are united by the fact that they are being shown to large audiences for the first time. Some of them have travelled a long way back to Russia.

“The variety of works presented at this display is wide. And all the items are of the highest quality. Maybe in some way the exhibition is a bit oversaturated, but we wanted to show all these icons so much,” said Gennady Popov, the head of the museum.

And this desire of the organisers can be understood. All of the art pieces, which are now shown to the public, belong to different private collectors. So, no one knows if there is a chance to see all the icons together in one place again.