Svetlin Rusev Donative Exhibition, Art museum in Pleven, Bulgaria.
The Svetlin Rusev Donative Exhibition is an art museum housed in a former bathhouse spanning three floors and displaying over 400 Bulgarian and international artworks from different periods. The collection encompasses paintings, sculptures, and other works ranging from classical to modern styles.
The building was designed by Nikola Lazarov in the early 20th century and served as Pleven's public baths until the 1970s. On 12 July 1984 Svetlin Rusev donated 322 paintings and sculptures to his native city, opening the gallery. In 1999 he added 82 graphic works, bringing the collection to 415 pieces.
The collection features works by Pablo Picasso, Francisco Goya, and Marc Chagall alongside Bulgarian artists from the 20th century onward. Visitors can observe how international and local artistic movements are displayed side by side.
The gallery occupies the three storeys of the former public baths, with the towers holding the third level, so allow time to climb between floors. The building is an architectural monument of national importance; the entrance is on the ground floor, where the early 20th-century Bulgarian painters hang.
The oldest painting in the gallery, a 17th-century work by an unknown French author, hangs on the second storey, not among the Western European masters on the third. The third storey, set in the building's towers, holds small sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas alongside engravings by Ilia Beshkov and Sidoniya Atanasova.
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