The BÉTON collection is the foundation of the museum, the basis of its various activities. Designed to reflect the diversity of artistic movements and forms of contemporary art in Russia, the museum collection currently numbers more than 10,000 exhibits. Its chronological boundaries extend from the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, the time of the emergence of modernist artistic practices in Russian culture, right up to the present day — covering a large, complex and eventful period in the history of our country.

The BÉTON collection began with the personal collection of Ilya Sergeevich Glazunov. Thanks to the support of the Moscow City Department of Culture, as well as gifts from artists, their heirs and collectors, the collection is regularly replenished with new works. Today, the center’s collection can rightfully be considered one of the most representative in the world.

Having deliberately refused to construct a single main line of narrative about the artistic process of modernity, “BÉTON” strives to create its most voluminous and multipolar panorama.