Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts, officially inaugurated on June 26, 1966, aims at preserving and highlighting the Nation's characteristic artistic heritage and the quintessence of Vietnamese plastic arts from pre-historic and very ancient times up to now. The Institute of Fine Arts – Fine Handicrafts was founded in 1962. It had concentrated forces and minds to build up the Museum in two phases: preparing exhibition content and reconstructing the old French building into a national Fine Arts Museum. The staff of the Institute of Fine Arts – Fine Handicrafts headed by the late painter, Nguyen Do Cung, together with a number of collaborators worked seriously and conscienciously to renovate the building and change it from the European style to a Vietnamese style architecture and make it suitable to function as a Fine Arts Museum. After four years, the preparative work was completed and on 26 June, 1966 Vietnam Fine Arts Museum was officially inaugurated to serve the public. Vietnam Fine Arts Museum is one of five national museums under the direct control of the Ministry of Culture and Information. Here the crème de la crème of Vietnamese plastic arts from prehistoric and early history periods up till now are duly preserved and promoted. The display system of the Museum includes six special subjects: - Vietnam Fine Arts in the Prehistoric and Early History periods; - Vietnam Fine Arts from the 11th to the 21st century, Paintings and sculptures from the 20th to the 21st century; - Applied decorative arts; - Vietnam's Folk Arts; - Vietnamese ceramics from the 11th to the 21st century. With 2018 exhibits and artworks out of more than 18,000 items, the Museum's display system is presented chronologically and according to special subjects (i.e., the artistic media and genres) to provide viewers with a brief survey of the process and development of Vietnam Fine Arts, very rich in humanitarian character and imbued with national identity. Of major interest is a collection of the outstanding works of the most famous artists, representative of Vietnamese painting and sculpture in the 20th century.