The museum was founded by Resolution of People's Commissars of the BSSR as the National Gallery of BSSR on 24 January 1939 as the National Gallery of the BSSR. It was renamedon 10 July 1957 into the State Art Museum of the BSSR and on 1993 into the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus. The National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus is the coutry's largest collection of national and foreign art, where more than 30,000 artifacts are stored. It froms 20 collections of monuments of the art of Belarus, other countries and nations. It is a unique collection of ancient Belarusian art: icons, sculptures, carvings, textiles. The pride of the museum is a priceless collection of the historical portrairts of the 16th-18th centuries, a collection of works by artists born in Belarus: I.Khrutsky, A.Goravsky, S.Zhukovsky, V.Byalynitsky-Birulya. The collection of the Russian Art of the 18th - the beginning of the 20th centuries is represented by the works of almost all the famous Russian painters: F.Rokotov, D.Levitsky, C.Bryullov, I.Aivazovsky, V.Tropinin, I.Shishikin, A.Kuindzhi, I.Repin, V.Surikov, I.Levitan, M.Vrubel and others. The largest collection in the museum is the Belarussian art of the 20th century. Because of it, we can trace its development from the origin of the Belarussian national shool of painting in the 1920s to the monumental paintings of the Belarusian folk artists of the 1960s-1990s.
The museum brings together under its leadership the following branches: The Museum of V.Byalynitski-Birulya in Mogilyov, the Museum "The Vankoviches' House. Culture and Art of the first half of the 19th century" in Minsk, and the Museum of the Belarusian folk art in Raubichi.
The First National Forum "Museums of Belarus". Museum Catalogue. The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, 2012.