Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Art museum in Avenidas Novas, Portugal.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is an art museum in Lisbon whose galleries, all on the first floor, are arranged around two patios in two chronological and geographic circuits. The long, low building has a pale beige stone facade with the name cut into the left side, a recessed glass entrance and a wide four-step staircase. Inside, polished reddish-brown wood floors and light wood-panelled walls hold tapestries, carved armchairs and a gilded chest of drawers.
Calouste Gulbenkian, born in 1869 in Scutari, made his fortune in oil and spent his last thirteen years between Paris and Lisbon, where he died in 1955. His foundation, approved in 1956, was charged with keeping his collection under one roof; the museum was instituted in 1960 and inaugurated on 2 October 1969. The building in the Parque de Santa Gertrudes is by Alberto Pessoa, Pedro Cid and Ruy Jervis d'Athouguia, with landscaping by António Viana Barreto and Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles.
Gulbenkian was born in 1869 in Scutari and died in Lisbon in 1955; his foundation, approved in 1956, opened the museum in 1969. His motto was "only the best", and his own taste guided every purchase, from Iznik ceramics with tulips and hyacinths to Persian and Turkish carpets and 14th-century enamelled mosque lamps. The Islamic East gallery reflects the Armenian collector's particular interest in the arts of Persia, Turkey, Syria, the Caucasus, Armenia and India.
The permanent galleries are all on the first floor, arranged around two patios as two separate circuits: one for classical and oriental art, one for European art. The museum closed for renovation until July 2026, reopening on 18 July 2026. The buildings stand in the Parque de Santa Gertrudes, bordered by Avenida de Berna to the north and Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar to the west.
Some works in the collection were bought during the Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings. Of about 6,000 items held by the museum, only around 1,000 are on permanent display, and the Lalique jewels and glass fill a room of their own.
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