Sakıp Sabancı Museum
Bosphorus villa and modern annexe at Emirgan showing calligraphy, Turkish painting and major touring shows.
The museum occupies the Atlı Köşk, a villa built in 1927 on a hillside at Emirgan to designs by the Italian architect Edouard De Nari. It passed to Hacı Ömer Sabancı in 1951 and takes its popular name from the bronze horse standing in the garden. Sakıp Sabancı lived there for decades and assembled the collections of Ottoman calligraphy and Turkish painting that form the museum's core. The house, its terraces and a sculpture garden look across the Bosphorus towards the Asian shore.
Sabancı University opened the property as a museum in 2002 and added a modern gallery wing three years later, allowing large loan exhibitions to be staged. Shows here have included Picasso, Rodin, Anish Kapoor, Ai Weiwei and Rembrandt, alongside displays from the permanent holdings of Qur'ans, imperial decrees, calligraphic panels and late Ottoman and Republican painting. The museum also runs a conservation unit, an education programme and a digital archive.
Highlights
- Arts of the Book and Calligraphy collection, with Qur'ans and imperial decrees
- Turkish painting from the late Ottoman and early Republican periods
- The 1927 Atlı Köşk villa, terraces and sculpture garden above the Bosphorus
- Gallery wing built for large international loan exhibitions
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