National Museum in Warsaw

In 1862 in Warsaw the Art Museum was founded. It s collection, comprised from pieces of art from private collections, grew rapidly. In 1916 it was renamed the National Museum of Warsaw. In 1926 the museum moved to the new building, designed by architect Tadeucz Tolwinsky in functional style. The National museum was the first one to appear in the center of Warsaw. The building housing the museum was one of the few central Warsaw constructions that survived after the World War II.

At present, the collection of the National museum in Warsaw is the richest in Poland and includes 780,000 items. Temporary exhibitions often take place in the museum. The permanent expositions include the Galleries of ancient and medieval art, foreign and Polish painting, Polish decorative art and painting of the 20th century. The collection includes rare archaeology exhibits, such as Mesopotamian stamps and tablets with cuneiform writings, Assyrian relief works, Greek pottery and other items of great value. The museum's holdings of Italian and French paintings from the 14th to the 18th centuries are particularly noted for the works by Botticelli, Tintoretto, Watteau and others. Mythical and biblical canvases, portraits, decorative still-lives and landscapes by German, Flemish and Dutch artists, the works signed by Rembrandt and his best students are recognized as the gems of the world painting.

The Gallery of Polish painting is particularly strong in the art of the nineteenth century. The exposition presents stylistic changes that Polish paintings underwent from the 16th century to the World War I. There are anonymous paintings dating from the 16th to the first half of the 18th centuries, portraits and battle scenes by Piotr Michalowski, historical and genre scenes by Artur Grottger, impressionistic and symbolic paintings by Wladyslaw Podkowinski and Jozef Pankiewicz, and other works by famous Polish artists.

The Gallery of Polish Decorative Art presents particularly valuable exhibits ranging in date from the 16th to the early 20th century. It includes artifacts made by Polish goldsmiths, embroideries, tapestries, glass works, faience, porcelain, decorative ceramics, furniture and other items of arts and crafts.

In the National museum of Warsaw there are collections of the Asian art, including Chinese porcelain, Japanese woodcuts, Muslim and Hindi manuscripts and bronze exhibits.

The museum also holds the largest Polish scholarly library of art catalogues, art history books, the fine art collection of old maps and prints, and the Collection of East Christian Art.