About Museum
Art Palace of Georgia - Museum of Cultural History is the most important repository of our culture. The museum is located in one of the most beautiful buildings in the capital. The author of the building is the famous architect of that period, Paul Friedrich Stern. The building is the best example of Islamic Gothic. The three-story tower, high pediments, beautifully decorated cornices, open terrace and steeply pitched roof give the building an unusual silhouette, less typical for Tbilisi.
The history of the construction of the building gives the palace even more charm. In 1882, the German prince Konstantin Peter of Oldenburg (1850-1906) met a beautiful woman, the wife of Dadiani himself, Agrafina Japaridze, in the city of Kutaisi. The prince was so fascinated by the beauty of the woman that he ignored her marital status and declared his love for her. The ardent feeling of Oldenburg made Agrafina forget both her husband and her duty. The lovers left Kutaisi and moved to Tbilisi. The prince built a beautiful palace for his beloved, who had run away from her husband. The theater museum, founded in 1927 by the famous Georgian public figure David Arsenishvili (1905-1963; later he became the first director of the Andrei Rublev Museum in Moscow), moved into this palace. Today it is the only one of its kind in the Caucasus, and in terms of the richness of its collection, it is on a par with museums of world importance. More than 300 thousand exhibits kept here will provide you with almost exhaustive information about the development of Georgian theater, music, circus, folk art, opera and ballet art and the artists working in these fields.
The museum exhibits begin with the ancient period. This is an antique mask discovered during archaeological excavations in the city of Vani. The manuscripts and archive documents fund preserves the manuscripts of Ilia Chavchavadze, Akaki Tsereteli, Alexander Kazbegi, Alexander Akhmeteli, Kote Marjanishvili, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Theodore Chaliapin, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. The museum houses the personal archives of prominent figures of art - Dimitri Arakishvili, Giorgi Eristavi, Mikheil Chiaureli, Zakaria Paliashvili, and Vano Sarajishvili; manuscript plays, variations of Shakespeare's Machabeli translation, and rare editions of the 17th-19th centuries are stored in the museum's book depository. Gramophone records, posters, and theatrical and film costumes are preserved here. The photo and photo negatives fund contains unique materials from the films “Jim Schwante!”, “Mamluk”, “Giorgi Saakadze” and others.
The fine arts fund is the richest. Here you will see: Persian miniatures of the 16th-17th centuries, French engravings of the 18th century, the best works of old Tbilisi painting. The paintings and graphic works of Lev Bakst, Alexander Benois, Fernand Léger, David Kakabadze, Lado Gudiashvili, Elene Akhvlediani, Petre Otskheli, Irakli Parjiani deserve special mention.
Our Team