Art Museum of Georgia, Art museum in central Tbilisi, Georgia.
The Art Museum of Georgia occupies the former Tbilisi Theological Seminary, a classical-style building erected in 1838 on Lado Gudiashvili Street near Freedom Square. Its halls hold about 140,000 items of Georgian, Oriental, Russian and European art, from medieval goldwork and cloisonné enamels to paintings by Pirosmani and his successors.
The museum was founded in 1920 under the name National Art Gallery and later moved to a building that had served as an Orthodox theological seminary, taking its current name in 1950. That move gave the institution the space it still occupies today.
The galleries bring together Georgian painting and decorative art alongside works from Russia, Europe, and the Orient, all displayed side by side without strict separation. Walking through the rooms gives a sense of how Georgian artistic tradition developed in dialogue with neighboring and distant cultures.
The museum is at 1 Lado Gudiashvili Street, just off Freedom Square, so it is easy to reach on foot from the centre of Tbilisi. The building is the former Tiflis Theological Seminary, and the collection of about 140,000 items fills spacious halls, so allow time to see it properly.
In 1945 the museum recovered a large number of works that had been taken to France during the 1921 Red Army occupation. Their return allowed parts of Georgian art history to survive that might otherwise have been lost permanently.
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