Almost all interior items are made of marble — bas-reliefs, trophies and even an eagle with scallops in its beak. The Marble Hall is one of the most famous rooms in the palace. Its walls are faced with four types of marble and Pribaikalsky lapis lazuli.

Famous people lived and died here at different times. The palace was designed by Antonio Rinaldi for Count Orlov, Catherine II's favorite, who died here in 1783. Almost a decade later, the last king of Poland, Stanislaw Poniatowski, lived and died here.

In the XIX-XX centuries, the palace was the ancestral home of the Grand Dukes of the Romanov dynasty. In 1992, it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Russian Museum. Today, it hosts congresses and exhibitions of contemporary art with vivid examples of works by foreign artists.

There is also a permanent exhibition presented to the Russian Museum by German collectors Peter and Irene Ludwig. There are works by masters of the second half of the twentieth century.