National Museum of Art of Romania
Romanian and European art displayed in the former Royal Palace on Revolution Square.
The museum occupies the former Royal Palace on Calea Victoriei, facing Revolution Square. An earlier palace by Paul Gottereau was enlarged and then largely rebuilt to designs by Nicolae Nenciulescu after a fire in 1926, giving the long neoclassical front seen today. The art collections opened to the public in 1948, when the building passed to the state. The palace was shelled during the events of December 1989 and its galleries were restored and reopened in stages from 2000.
Displays are arranged in two main sections. The National Gallery covers Romanian art from medieval church furnishings and icons through to nineteenth and twentieth century painting and sculpture, including major holdings of Nicolae Grigorescu, Theodor Aman and Constantin Brancusi. The European Art Gallery presents Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish and French works, among them paintings by El Greco, Rembrandt and Rubens. A print room, historic state rooms and a programme of temporary exhibitions complete the visit.
Highlights
- National Gallery of Romanian medieval, modern and contemporary art
- European Art Gallery with Old Master paintings
- Historic state rooms of the former Royal Palace
- Regular large-scale temporary exhibitions
