Gyurkovich Tibor purchased his first painting (Oszkár Glatz: Girl wearing red kerchief) in 1929. His collection was gradually formed and extended right up to his death in 1978.

The core of the material consists of the artists of the reform era, such as - Miklós Barabás , József Borsos , Sándor Kozma, Jakab Marastoni , Károly Markó, junior etc. - and those representing the local historical-academian trend - Bertalan Székely , Gyula Benczúr, Károly Lotz , Jenő Gyárfás , Mihály Zichy ,Gusztáv Keleti etc. This is supplemented by the artist of the Hungarian realism - MihályMunkácsy,László Mednyánszky ,Gyula Rudnay , József Koszta -, and thos of the plain-air art - Pál Szinyei Merse -, the painting of Nagybánya - Károly Ferenczy , Jenő Maticska ,István Csók ,Oszkár Glatz -, the secession - Aladár Körösfoi-Kriesch , Álmos Jaschik -, postimpressionism - János Vaszary ,József Rippl-Rónai etc. -, and the artists following new formal trends. - József Nemes Lampérth ,Endre Domanovszky.

Tibor Gyurkovich was quite open to collect the works little known or not liked by himself. This made unbiased work made it possible for the name of Károly Sterio (19th century) to enter into the list of great masteres.

The artistic level of the collection items are rather fluctuating. There are among them real first-class and most prominent works (than for instance those of József Borsos, Ágost Canzi, Oszkár Glatz, János Vaszary), but sketches or less pleasant works as well. In spite of their unevenness, the collection of Tibor Gyurkovich and his wife is one of the richest Hungarian collection of the kind.