 Many projects were mooted since the 1990s for establishing museums of communism in Sofia , Dimitrovgrad , and <unk> , but none came to fruition . During the same period , many monuments of the Soviet regime were destroyed or dismantled . During the summer of 2011 attempts to create exhibits on the role of the communist regime in Bulgaria were made by a group of artists who painted " pop icons " on the Soviet army memorial in Sofia in June 2011 . At that point , the government decided to establish museums in Bulgaria and also to restore dismantled monuments . The establishment of the Museum of Contemporary Art , the Museum of Ancient Sofia , and the National Museum Complex ( renamed as " the Bulgarian Louvre " ) came to be established in Sofia as a result of that decision . At the same time it was decided by Ministry of Culture to create the Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia to enhance the city 's cultural ambiance and its position as a major tourist attraction , in conformity with similarly themed museums that had been established in many cities of Eastern Europe . It was also considered and accepted by the ministry that the museum would be a subsidiary of the National Gallery of Art . <unk> <unk> , the Minister of Culture , himself a sculptor , took the initiative to see through the project of creating the museum for exhibiting the artistic heritage of the communist regime . The Government of Bulgaria fully supported the initiative and provided funds to the extent of 1 @.@ 5 million euros to establish the museum , hoping that the revenue from the sale of entry tickets would recover this cost in a period of 2 years . The remnants of the socialist regime were found from basement of very town in Bulgaria for installation at the museum before it formally opened on 19 September 2011 . 
