Munch Museum

The Munch Museum ( Norwegian called Munch museet ) in Oslo, Norway, is an art museum that contains the posthumous works of Edvard Munch, who bequeathed the world-famous painter and graphic artist in 1940 the city of Oslo. The museum was opened on 29 May 1963 about a hundred years after the birth of the artist.

The building

The building in Tøyengata 53 in the district Tøyen, Ostoslo was designed by the architects Gunnar Fougnerud and Einar Myklebust. The latter was the early 1990s, also the architect of a major expansion and renovation. The new museum was inaugurated in 1994 to Munch's 50th anniversary. While the original museum was financed from revenues of the Oslo cinemas, was agent for the last construction phase through a contract with the Japanese company Idemitsu Kosan co. Ltd.. be provided.

The museum now includes, among other exhibition spaces, photographic and conservation studios, offices, a library and magazines. Centrally located in the museum there is an auditorium, which is also used for exhibitions, concerts, theater, and film screenings. The new entrance area there is a museum shop and a café. The security measures, particularly to Munch's painting "The Scream", have been tightened because of previous thefts.

The museum is in a structurally poor condition; a new building in the city center of Oslo is decided.

The Collection

Edvard Munch's legacy to the city of Oslo comprised about 1,100 paintings, 15,500 graphic sheets of 700 subjects, 4700 Drawings, and six sculptures. Then there were nearly 500 plates, 2240 books, journals, documents, photographs, tools, props and furniture. The museum was Munch's extensive collection of letters, along with a significant number of original works, which are mainly from the 1880s, and later donated by his sister Ingrid Munch.

This and other gifts are in addition to barter helped that are well over half of the paintings Munch, all of his graphic designs and all existing printing plates in the possession of the Museum. This provides the Munch Museum Oslo internationally excellent conditions for special exhibitions and worldwide exhibitions.

With the library and the magazines is the Munch Museum Oslo also for researchers and students willing important sources of information.