"The main pathos of this exhibition is the staging of the World Cup... The Department of Private Collections of our museum boasts the biggest collection of Rodchenko's and Stepanova's works in the world... Alexander Rodchenko loved football and sports, while Varvara Fedorovna loved her husband, and although she was not very interested in football, she was interested in designing uniform for football players," Alexey Savinov, a research worker at the museum, told Sputnik Thursday.

The show features a total of nine paintings, drawings and photos by Rodchenko and Stepanova, a couple who were major figures on the Russian and then Soviet art scene in the 1910s and 1920s.

Russia will host its first-ever FIFA World Cup between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums across 11 cities, with a total of 12 matches, including the opener and the final set to be played in Moscow.