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Mon - Fri 11:00-18:00
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Description
The Art Museum of Tartu University is the oldest museum in Estonia, being founded in 1803. The Museum was established in the University in order to illustrate lectures and develop the students' taste for art.
The Museum as founded by its first director, Prof Karl Morgenstern (1770-1852), had a wide variety of collections, mirroring the principles of the Enlightenment and displaying various forms of art and the art of different countries. In the middle of the 19th century, the Museum was renamed the Museum of Classical Antiquities with its emphasis only on ancient art. The Museum was opened to the general public outside the academic circles in 1862 and thereby acquired a greater significance. The Museum moved to its present location in the left wing of the University Main Building in 1868.
Since 1998, the Museum bears its former name – The Art Museum of Tartu University, and in addition to ancient art, visitors can have a look at exhibitions displaying other collections of the Museum and contemporary Estonian art.
The permanent exhibition features statuary – examples of the best-known works from the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods of Greek art presented in their original size as plaster casts. The latter were bought for the Art Museum from museums in Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy in the 1860s. The exhibition halls are decorated with ornamental Pompeian wall paintings, which create a complementary background for the sculptures. The exhibition also offers a display of ancient originals: coins, vases, clay lamps, statuettes, and cuneiform tablets. The Art Museum of Tartu University is granted a special status among other Estonian museums, being the only museum exhibiting ancient art.
Open Mon-Fri 11 AM- 5 PM
Advanced reservations of guided tours also on Sat, Sun |
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In English
