The National Museum in Warsaw’s Gallery of Ancient Art – Back After Years

Abstract

The Gallery of Ancient Art occupies one of the National Museum in Warsaw’s most prominent interiors. Rearrangement work on the gallery concluded in December 2020, having lasted several years. In its new incarnation, the gallery carries on the long tradition of ancient art being displayed at the NMW. That tradition began with an initiative of Stanisław Lorentz, who in 1936 contacted Kazimierz Michałowski with a proposal to organize an exhibition which would present artefacts discovered in the Polish archaeological mission in Edfu. The first permanent exhibition opened in 1938 but was soon closed by the Second World War, and would not reopen until May 1949. After more than 60 years of uninterrupted operation, with few changes along the way, the Gallery of Ancient Art was in need of urgent renovation.  The realisation of the project titled the “Rearrangement of the National Museum in Warsaw’s Gallery of Ancient Art Permanent Exhibition” was made possible thanks to European Union funding under the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment 2014–20 and funds granted by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The new gallery’s 716 m² of floor space is divided into nine rooms relating to different periods and places, representing the culture and art of: Egypt (three rooms), the Near East (one room) and Greece and Rome (five rooms, also housing the Cyprian and Etruscan collections). On display in the exhibition are more than 1860 artefacts, most of them the property of the National Museum in Warsaw and some on long-term loan from the Louvre and the University of Warsaw.