András Mengyán, a distinguished artist, designer, and professor, is a leading figure in Hungarian visual and applied arts, having been awarded the prestigious Prima Primissima Prize in 2024.

The millenary session of the Hungarian Parliament in 1896 passed a law whereby art collections previously held in different institutions were to be unified and placed in the newly-established Museum of Fine Arts. On the basis of a competitive tender, Albert Schickendanz and Fülöp Herzog were commissioned to design and construct the building, which opened in 1906.