The Art Collections Museum

Established in 1978, the Art Collections Museum is housed in the former Romanit Palace. Around 1812 boyar Constantin Facca built the palace which was bought in the early 1830s by Grigore Romanit, treasurer of Prince Grigore Ghica. In 1834 Prince Alexandru Ghica rented the building, which later was to house the Administrative Court of Wallachia. Following the Union of the Romanian Principalities in 1859, the palace became the property of the Ministry of Finance; under its administration, in 1884 two wings were added to the building which largely retained the original neoclassical style.


The Museum currently holds 42 private collections (with over 12,000 works in a wide range of media) donated to the Romanian State between 1927 and 2002, among which those of Elena and Anastase Simu, Prof. Garabet Avachian, Dr. I. N. Dona, Maruca Dona, Alexandra and Barbu Slătineanu, Marcu Beza, George Oprescu, Iosif Iser, Victor Eftimiu, Dr. Mircea Petrescu and Prof. Artemiza Petrescu, Josefina and Eugen Taru, Elisabeta and Moise Weinberg, Idel Ianchelevici, Shizuko Onda, Dr. Emanoil Anca and Ortansa Dinulescu Anca, Hurmuz Aznavorian, Beatrice and Hrandt Avakian.

Buddha, Tibet
Romanian art is particularly well represented: valuable samples of folk art (icons on glass and wood, ceramics, furniture, as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century textiles) are shown alongside a significant body of paintings by Nicolae Grigorescu, Ioan Andreescu, Ştefan Luchian, Jean Al. Steriadi, Francisc Şirato, Gheorghe Petraşcu, Nicolae Tonitza, Nicolae Dărăscu, Theodor Pallady, Iosif Iser, Alexandru Ciucurecu, and sculptures by Frederic Storck, Oscar Han, Corneliu Medrea, Miliţa Pătraşcu, Celine Emilian, and Constantin Brâncuşi. The Museum also holds noteworthy works of art by French, Flemish and Dutch artists. Among its masterpieces are works by Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Antoine Bourdelle, David Teniers the Younger, and Vincent van Gogh.


Jar with Brushes, Gheorghe Petraşcu
The holdings of decorative art include European porcelain and furniture, alongside Egyptian vessels, statuettes and coins, Oriental textiles, Ottoman carpets from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, Persian ceramics dating from the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, and Tibetan statuettes in bronze. Far Eastern sculptures, cloisonné, as well as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century wood and ivory netsukes round out the collections.


The Quarantine in Sculeni, 1840, A. Raffet
The restoration of the “A Wing” of the Art Collections Museum occasioned the reopening of its cellars to the public. The three vaulted rooms, with niches (in the fake brickwork walls) ending in pointed arches, are an ideal space for organizing the Lapidarium. It hosts an important part of the stone sculpture collection of the Romanian Medieval Art Gallery.

(From MNAR)

The National Art Museum (Part 4)

Since its establishment in 1954, the Oriental Art Collection of the Museum has been steadily increased and consolidated around two main areas of interest: Islamic art, on the one hand, Chinese and Japanese art, on the other. It is the largest Oriental collection housed by a Romanian museum, and it consists of items from the royal collection, the Toma Stelian Museum, as well as gifts and acquisitions. Two distinguished collections, Dr. Ştefan Nicolau (1896-1967) and General Gheorghe Băgulescu (1896-1963) who once was Romania’s ambassador to Tokyo, contributed significantly to the growth of the present collection.

Guanyin amid Lotuses, jade, Qing Dynasty, 18th-19th c.
Over the last decade, Chinese modern works in the traditional style, recovered from the official residences of Nicolae Ceauşescu, have been added to the collection alongside recent luxury carpets presented to the Romanian dictator by the last Shah of Iran.


Scholars in a Pavilion, Qing Dynasty, 16th-17th c.
The Department of Oriental Art currently holds over 3,100 objects.
The permanent exhibition was closed due to ongoing renovation of the building, and will be redisplayed in newly refurbished areas in compliance with European standards of conservation. Meanwhile exhibitions of Oriental art are being enriched regularly.

Islamic Art
About 400 carpets covering a wide geographical area and spanning four centuries are at the core of the collection. The patrimony include tribal artifacts, Iranian and Ottoman silk carpets, seventeenth century Transylvanian carpets, providing a broad view of the development of this art in Turkey, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Iran. Textiles and embroideries, mostly from Turkey and Central Asia, are among the strong points of the collection.


Tent bag, Central Asia (Salor tribe), 19th. c.
Though less representative than the textile collection, the selection of Islamic ceramics from Iran and Turkey includes notable works such as fifteenth- to seventeenth-century bowls, as well as vases and plates dating from more recent times. The Islamic collection also features Safavid and Qajar metalwork, arms and amour pieces.


Ewer, Ottoman Turkey (Kütahya), 18th c.

Chinese and Japanese Art
The Chinese patrimony include about 150 paintings on silk and paper from the Ming and Qing dynasties, illustrating the traditional style of Chinese professional painters.

The selection of Japanese paintings, comprising roughly 200 pieces from the Momoyama period alongside a large group dating from the Edo period, highlights the development of the Tosa, Kano, Maruyama and Ukiyo-e schools. Paintings from the Meiji period and the first quarter of the twentieth century add to the wealth and diversity of the ensemble.


Courtesan and Attendant, Kitagawa Utamaro, early 19th c.
The department also holds a noteworthy collection of jade carvings and other semiprecious stone objects produced in China in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as similar Japanese pieces. Valuable patrimony of ceramics and porcelain, costumes and embroideries, metalwork, cloisonné and ivories, as well as wood, bronze and stone Buddhist sculptures complement the collection of Chinese art.


Covered vase and metallic mount, Edo period, 18th c.
The collection of Japanese decorative art features ivory carvings, ceramics and porcelain, arms and armor pieces, liturgical textiles, and metalwork in the Buddhist tradition. Several wood sculptures provide an insight into the Buddhist art dating back to the beginning of the Edo period.

(From MNAR)

The National Art Museum (Part 3)

The collection of the Department of Decorative Arts, which currently holds about 11,500 objects, was established after the nationalization of the royal collection and of several smaller private collections (among which the Kalinderu Museum was the most important). Over the years numerous gifts and purchases had enriched its patrimony. The permanent display of the department - inaugurated in 1978 - is now closed. However, in a couple of years time, the collection will be put on view in a gallery of decorative arts to be housed by the Museum. Meanwhile, exhibitions are enriched each year, based entirely on the department’s collections. The department’s holdings are structured by object classification.

King Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba
The textile collection of some 300 items, among which 100 tapestries, include exquisite creations of the Flemish workshops in Brussels (such as King Solomon Receiving the Queen of Sheba, the oldest tapestry in the collection), Oudenaarde and Lille, and of the French workshops in Beauvais and Aubusson.


Empress Elisabeth of Austria
The department also has approximately 300 miniature paintings, by famous European artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Jean Baptiste Isabey, Richard Cosway, Franz Xavier Winterhalter, as well as by well-known Romanian artists, such as Ion D. Negulici, Anton Chladek, Carol Popp de Szathmary.


Pair of decorative vases
A significant collection of ceramics and glassware with some 5,000 items documents the craftsmanship of designers and modelers in Faenza, Urbino, Delft, Sèvres, and Meissen. Alongside valuable glassware from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, of particular interest are several unique Art Nouveau works by Emile Gallé, the Daum brothers, and René Lalique. About 1,000 pieces of furniture reflect the development and diversity of artistic styles in major West European countries.


Painted cassone – The Doge of Venice Receiving the Queen of Cyprus
The furniture collection of abour 1,000 pieces features mostly French furniture in the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles, and Art Nouveau furniture. It also contains some beautiful Italian pieces, representative of the Milanese workshops, as well as several German and Austrian Biedermeier ensembles.


Egg-shaped bonbonnière
Alongside jewelery, jade and ivory carvings, the department also has approximately 3,300 objects in silver, bronze or tin, and seventeenth- to nineteenth-century clocks, which make up a noteworthy collection of metalwork. Thirty-seven highlights from the collection are presented online, organized chronologically by object classification and country of origin (schools, workshops and artists).

(From MNAR)

The National Art Museum (Part 2)

Established in 1948, the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints took over and integrated works from public and private art collections in Bucharest (the most valuable came from the Toma Stelian Museum), and from the royal collection as well. It currently holds over 17,000 drawings and 40,000 prints by both Romanian and foreign artists. The collection had been steadily enlarged through acquisitions, with a special emphasis on Romanian contemporary art, including caricatures and poster designs. A significant group of Japanese prints from the collection of Gheorghe Băgulescu complements the holdings of the department.

Iosif Iser - Tatar Woman
Among the highlights of the Romanian collection are notable drawings, watercolours and prints by nineteenth-century masters such as Theodor Aman, Carol Popp de Szathmari and Nicolae Grigorescu. The latter’s sketchbooks provide a more intimate insight into the work of the great Romanian artist. The department also has the most important and consistent public collection of pastels and watercolours by Ştefan Luchian. Outstanding works by major painters-draughtsmen of the interwar period, such as Theodor Pallady and Jean Al. Steriadi, and drawings by the sculptor Dimitrie Paciurea, especially his sketchbooks, are noteworthy examples of the Romanian art collection.


Theodor Pallady - Street in Toledo
The European holdings include alongside French works, which account for the larger part of the foreign art collection, drawings and prints by well-known Italian, Dutch and Flemish masters. Educated mostly in France, Romanian artists and collectors developed a particular taste for French art, which explains the comparatively wide circulation of French works in local private and public collections. Drawings by Delacroix, Bourdelle, Matisse, as well as a large group of French engravings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are among the strengths of the department.


Henri Matisse - Romanian Blouse
During the events in December 1989 one of the storage rooms burned down, and four hundred documentary drawings were destroyed in the fire. Over the years, generous gifts from collectors Ligia and Pompiliu Macovei, Dr. Aurel Olaru and graphic artist Vasile Kazar have compensated for this dramatic loss. Ever since December 2000, when the Museum was reopened to the public, the department has regularly shown its collection in rotating exhibitions mounted in specially designated rooms within the European Art Gallery and the Romanian Modern Art Gallery.

(From MNAR)

The National Art Museum (Part 1)

As we have presented in our precedent post, the National Museum of Art of Romania (Muzeul Naţional de Artă al României, MNAR) was established in Bucharest in 1948, in the former Royal Palace.

The European Art Gallery was initially part of the larger Foreign Art Department, which also held the Oriental art and the decorative arts patrimonies. The Museum’s collection of European paintings and sculptures comprises 2,761 works (2,233 paintings and 528 sculptures), and is the largest in Romania. Organized by schools, the works range in date from the fourteenth through the twentieth century. At the core of the collection is the Picture Gallery of King Carol I, assembled mostly over the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The patrimony increased with the addition of several lots of works from the collections of Baron Samuel von Bruckenthal, Ioan and Dr. Nicolae Kalinderu, as well as from museums such as Toma Stelian, Anastase Simu, Al. Saint-Georges, and the Bucharest Picture Gallery. After 1950, gifts and acquisitions further increased the patrimony of the Department.

Alfred Sisley - Moret church in winter

The Department of Romanian Medieval Art, which holds the largest and valuable collection of its kind in Romania, was established in 1953, and was opened to the public six years later, in 1959. It illustrates the way local art blended Byzantine tradition with Western elements, integrating Eastern and Western influences into a singular original synthesis. Over 9,500 works drawn from all three Romanian Principalities – Walachia, Moldavia and Transylvania – span five centuries of artistic achievement, from late fourteenth century through early nineteenth century. The patrimony include icons, fresco fragments, embroideries and textiles, illuminated manuscripts and rare books, silver, jewelry, woodcarvings, metalwork, and ceramics. The core of the present patrimony came to the Museum from public collections (primarily from the National Museum of Antiquities) created after the Union of the Romanian Principalities in 1859. The religious art collection of the National Antiquities Museum was created after the secularization of monastery assets. The law passed in December 1863 was one of the most important projects in the development of modern Romania, having been supported by prominent art and culture representatives of the time. Church treasures and artifacts were transferred to the public domain in exchange for considerable financial compensation, funding for which the state had to contract its first foreign loans. Archaeological finds and works from the national art treasure sent to Russia for safekeeping in 1916, and partly recovered in 1956, as well as various acquisitions and donations, further consolidated the collection. Furthermore, church artifacts and architectural works saved from buildings which were, controversially, demolished during the communist regime, were added to the Romanian Medieval Art collection.


Virgin and Child

The Department of Romanian Modern Art holds more than 8,600 paintings and 2,000 sculptures, which represent the largest and finest collection of Romanian art in the country. The history of this collection largely reflects the development of Romanian modern art itself. The first collection of paintings by Romanian artists in Bucharest dates back to 1834. In 1864 it was given the name the State Picture Gallery. Notable works from smaller museums in Bucharest, such as Anastase Simu, Toma Stelian, Kalinderu, Al. Saint-Georges, were added to the valuable patrimony of the department. Other masterworks by Romanian artists came from the Bucharest Picture Gallery, the National Bank, the Romanian Academy, the Administration of Hospitals, and the collection of the Romanian Crown. Since its establishment in 1948, the Department of Romanian Modern Art has also increased its patrimony through gifts, donations and acquisitions.


Victor Brauner - Passivité courtoise

An important part of the stone sculpture collection of the Romanian Medieval Art Gallery is hosted by the Art Collections Museum. The restoration of the “A Wing” of the Art Collections Museum occasioned the reopening of its cellars to the public. The three vaulted rooms, with niches (in the fake brickwork walls) ending in pointed arches, were the ideal space for organizing the Lapidarium. The stone sculptures, some of which are displayed for the first time, were initially part of several old Romanian architectural monuments that had disappeared in different circumstances: some demolished as a result of the systematization that took place in late 19th century, others irrationally demolished during the 1980s. During the Middle Ages, stone sculpture in Romania primarily focused on decorating religious and civil monuments because Orthodox religious doctrine, which had to be respected, forbid the representation of the “carved face”. The Lapidarium exhibits a variety of tombstones, inscriptions, decorative door and window frames, monumental columns, column bases and capitals. The pieces have historical, documentary and artistic value, and depict the craftsmanship and skill of the Wallachian stone masters from the 14th to the 18th century.


The coat of arms of Mihail Cantacuzino

(From MNAR)

Bucharest Royal Palace

In 1837, the Wallachian ruling Prince Alexandru Ghica moves his official residence to the large mansion built between 1812 and 1820 by boyar Dinicu Golescu on the site of the present-day south wing of the Palace. Following the Union of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Walachia in 1859, ruling Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza uses the house as a ceremonial palace and residence. In 1866, German Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (since 1881 King Carol I of Romania), brought in to rule the Romanian Principalities, makes the palace his official residence. Until 1881, the building sustains only minor alterations (mostly additions) designed to meet growing administrative needs.


Between 1882-1906, King Carol I remodels and enlarges the palace. Successively he hires French architect Paul Gottereau and German architect Karl Liman (also involved in the Peleş Castle project). By 1906 the palace becomes the winter residence of the Royal Court.


In December 1926, a fire destroys the central part of the palace and the Throne Hall. King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie (granddaughter of Queen Victoria and of Tsar Alexander II of Russia) undertake to reconstruct the affected area retaining the original size and decoration of the rooms. Architects N.N. Nenciulescu and Karl Liman are commissioned to carry out the project. The government recommends that at least one floor be added above the Throne Hall. Between 1930-1937, King Carol II embarks on rebuilding and extending the palace; architect Karl Lorentz is hired to draw the plans. The restoration of the central part is completed. The old city mansion erected by Dinicu Golescu is demolished to provide room for a new south wing (known as the Kretzulescu wing, after the church in whose proximity it is built). Architect N.N. Nenciulescu is once again in charge of the works. Closely following the king’s instructions, he designs the new wing of the palace, which has remained virtually unchanged to this day and which includes several rooms devoted to the display of the royal collection (mostly of the Picture Gallery of King Carol I). Between 1938-1940, the Royal Palace is further enlarged by the addition of a north wing extending along Ştirbei Vodă Street, from which it takes its name.


During the massive air raid in April 1944, about 80 heavy bombs hit the palace; the Ştirbei wing is partly destroyed, yet the building retains the shape and the classicist style of the reconstruction works done during the reign of Carol II. Following the abdication of King Michael I in 1947 and the communist takeover, the royal palace is nationalized in June 1948. It is to be jointly used by two institutions - the Council of Ministers and a National Museum of Art whose project dates several years back.


On 20 May 1950, the National Gallery, displaying works by famous Romanian artists, is officially inaugurated. Over the following four years the Foreign Art Gallery, exhibiting both European and Oriental art, and the Department of Romanian Medieval Art are established. In 1961 the museum is relocated from the south to the north wing, completely rebuilt by that time. It will remain open for visitors until 1989.


During the events in December 1989, which put an end to Ceauşescu’s dictatorship and to the communist regime in Romania, the palace is caught in the crossfire; both the building and the collection suffer great losses, with over 1,000 works of art badly damaged, and some completely destroyed.


In 1990 the museum is granted the use of the entire royal palace. Between 1990-2000, the permanent display of the museum is closed to the public, as the building undergoes extensive restoration, including the overall refurbishment of the exhibition areas in compliance with the latest conservation standards. In 2000, The Gallery of European Art is the first to reopen for visitors. The Gallery of Romanian Modern Art and the Gallery of Romanian Medieval Art follow suit in 2001 and 2002, respectively.

Bucharest system of fortifications

One of the most well-tuned system of fortifications in eastern Europe, a historical legacy, lies in the dirt around the capital. Built on order of King Carol I, between 1882 - 1894, the defense system around Bucharest - 36 forts and batteries - was thought to protect the city in case of attack and to house 30,000 soldiers. Over one hundred years since then, only 30 buildings have survived.


The history of fortified belt begins with the arrival of King Carol I on the Romanian throne in 1866. The work began in 1882, the projects being undertaken by Belgian General Henri Brialmont, one of the most appreciated of the time military engineers who designed the fortifications in Liège, Namur, Antwerp. "A strengthened Bucharest would increase the military importance of Romania, so it will be able to refuse to participate in a war which would not agree, or to request advantages, which could not otherwise claim", claimed then General.


Batteries and forts are arranged every two kilometers on the ring road. First were built the forts - Chitila, Mogoşoaia, Otopeni, Jilava - then the rest, then came the batteries. King Carol I paid a fabulous sums for this public project: the equivalent in lei / gold of almost 620 million Euros. World War I played a prank on the glorious future of the fortifications. A month before the start of the war, minister Ion I.C. Brătianu decided by a secret order, the disarmament of the units. There are voices who claim that the decision was made after the German troops were able to obtain the construction plans.


Today, what was intended to be defensive glory of King Carol I was particularly dust. Of the 36 fortifications, today remained only 30. Some are flooded, as is the Jilava fort, others were either converted in warehouses (the battery in the courtyard of the National Film Archive) or remained in the wilderness (The battery 14-15 and battery 9-10 from Măgurele at the entrance on Sun's Highway).


Rehabilitation of the system of fortifications, almost unique in Europe, could bring many benefits in terms of financial capital. "Before their introduction into the touristic circuit, we need to solve the transport system and greening the area. To do this would be a wonderful tourist route", claimed the Director of Administration of Monuments and Travel Heritage.