Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke, Classical sculpture cast museum in Maxvorstadt, Munich, Germany.
The Museum for Casts of Classical Sculptures displays about 2000 full-sized plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures. The works are arranged in two high halls, with lighting that emphasizes the sculptural forms.
Heinrich von Brunn founded the museum in 1869 alongside the chair of Classical Archaeology at the University of Munich, starting with 360 casts. In 1877 it moved to the northern Hofgarten arcades of the Residenz, where casts were arranged as an 'archaeological visual school' for stylistic comparison. A January 1945 bombing raid destroyed almost all 2,398 casts; only 15 survived and moved to the Haus der Kulturinstitute in 1949.
The museum began as a teaching collection for the University of Munich's chair of classical archaeology, founded in 1869 by Heinrich von Brunn. Its arrangement follows the "archaeological visual school": casts are grouped in series so that parallels, differences and stylistic development can be read off directly. A photo library of over 100,000 images supports this comparison.
The museum is free to visit and open during weekday hours. Guided tours are offered regularly and help you explore the collection in a structured way.
Since June 2005 the museum has displayed a coloured model of the Parthenon in Athens, lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and counted among the most valuable architectural models of its kind. The collection also holds around 100 tin and bronze replicas and plaster casts acquired after the 1972 Olympic Games exhibition on the excavations at Olympia.
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