The Fine Arts Museum or National Vietnam Fine Arts Museum is an ancient building built in the 20th century by the French. It used to be a study for the daughters of French officials in Hanoi. Its function later changed to displaying artworks after the Vietnamese government renovated it in 1962. Since its opening in 1966, it has become a storage center for artworks and many interesting artifacts that you would never have imagined before. The three-story building features around 2,000 objects in permanent exhibition galleries from ancient to modern times. In addition, it also has interesting educational spaces with various thematic tours. If you're lucky, you can see solo exhibitions of artworks by Vietnamese artists and organizations. Not only that, the Fine Arts Museum also frequently holds traveling exhibitions in various locations at home and abroad, including the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Laos, and others.

Since 40 years ago, there are thousands of artworks stored at the Fine Arts Museum. You can find a collection of Vietnamese folk art. This is one of the museum's most interesting collections, as folk paintings often have their own characteristics. The colors are bright and the content is clear. Usually, these folk works have various themes, such as worship, congratulations, daily activities, famous historical figures such as Dong Ho paintings, Kim Hoang paintings, Sinh Village paintings and others. Apart from paintings, you can also find folk sculptures made of terracotta, metal and carved wood, depicting the life and customs of the long-standing Vietnamese people. There is also a collection of ceramics that you can learn about through an introduction to the characteristics of unglazed and glazed ceramic stages including crackle-glazed ceramics, celadon ceramics, brown flowered ceramics (Ly and Tran dynasties), white-blue glazed ceramics and modern ceramics.

If you're coming with children, you can take them to explore the Creative Space for Kids. In this room, built in 2011, children can freely and openly do various activities to discover, feel and experience art from the museum's collection such as paintings, ceramics, sculptures, folk art and more. Meanwhile, you can explore the Virtual Art Exhibition Room via your smartphone. There is also an iMuseim VFA multimedia guide.

To date, the Fine Arts Museum cares for nearly 20,000 objects, about 18,000 of which are kept in storage. While 2,000 objects are on display. The storage area at the museum has a total area of 1,000m2 and includes 8 storage areas: Ancient Sculpture, Modern Sculpture, Oil Painting, Lacquer Painting, Paper and Silk, Traditional Art, Ancient Ceramics, and Cu Lao Cham Ceramics.

The Fine Arts Museum is located in Ba Dinh District, across the street from the Temple of Literature. It is about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) west of Hoan Kiem Lake, and is a 15-minute walk away. Tour guides are available in Vietnamese, English, Mandarin, and French.