 It served as the city's public baths until 1970, and has been home to the exhibition since 1984, when Rusev donated 322 works of his collection of paintings and sculptures, in 1999 adding 82 more.Works of the best-known Bulgarian artists from the early 20th century are exhibited on the first storey.These include Zlatyu Boyadzhiev, Tsanko Lavrenov, Sirak Skitnik, Kiril Petrov, Bencho Obreshkov, Dechko Uzunov, Vladimir Dimitrov, etc.