Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Vilnius

The Lithuanian National Museum of Art is the largest national museum in Lithuania. Its main goal is to collect, restore, and conserve art and historical objects of cultural value, while presenting artefacts of national importance in an impressive number of exhibition spaces located in the coastal cities and the capital.

The Museum has a long history, dating back to the early 20th century. After the ban on the Lithuanian language imposed by the Russian Empire was lifted, a number of art exhibitions donated works to the Lithuanian Art Society, which began to make plans for a permanent facility. However, the activity was interrupted by World War I.

In the postwar era, the plans were restarted, and in 1933, the Vilnius Magistracy decided to establish the Vilnius City Museum. From 1966, the Museum was called the Lithuanian Art Museum, and in January 1997, the new government of Lithuania granted the Museum its current status as a national museum.

The Lithuanian National Museum of Art exhibits and exhibitions take place in nine venues located in Vilnius and the coastal region of Lithuania. The Museum is visited by around 350 thousand visitors yearly. The collections at the Museum consist of around 250 thousand valuable objects, including about 2,500 paintings dating from the 16th to 19th centuries, mostly portraits of nobility and clergy of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy from the 16th to 18th centuries, as well as religious works from Lithuanian churches and cloisters.

The Museum houses over 8,000 drawings by Italian, German, French, Flemish, Dutch, Polish, English, and Japanese artists from the 15th to 20th centuries. The collections also include works in sculpture, watercolor, pastel, and photography. The section of applied arts features works and objects made from amber, ceramics, metal, porcelain, glass, textile, and leather, as well as furniture, numismatics, and clocks.