The gallery was built in 1980 as the Soviet Lithuanian Museum of the Revolution. The National Gallery was established in 1993, and became part of the Lithuanian Art Museum. The gallery was used mainly for ethnographic and folk art exhibitions. The building was closed for refurbishment in 1999, and only reopened as the National Gallery of Art in 2009. Since then, the gallery has followed the concept of the National Gallery of Art (approved by the Lithuanian government in 2002), and has been restructured to appear as it does today.