MO Museum
Privately founded museum of Lithuanian modern and contemporary art in a Libeskind-designed building.
MO Museum opened in October 2018 on Pylimo Street, just outside the walls of Vilnius Old Town. It grew out of a private collection assembled from the 1990s onwards by the scientists and philanthropists Danguole and Viktoras Butkus, who gathered Lithuanian art produced from the 1950s to the present day. The holdings now number several thousand paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs and installations, and are shown through changing thematic displays rather than a fixed permanent hang, supported by a programme of talks and education work.
The building was designed by Studio Libeskind in collaboration with the Vilnius practice Do Architects. Its white rectilinear volume is cut by a wide external staircase that rises through the facade to a first-floor terrace, and a public passage links the street to a small sculpture garden behind. Interior galleries are arranged over several levels around a central atrium, and the ground floor houses a bookshop, cafe and auditorium that stay open independently of the exhibition halls.
Highlights
- Building by Daniel Libeskind's studio with a facade-crossing open staircase
- Collection of Lithuanian art from the 1950s to the present
- Rotating thematic exhibitions rather than a fixed permanent display
- Rooftop terrace, sculpture garden and free-access ground floor
