National Museum (Kraków)
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| Established | 1879 |
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| Location | 3 May Street Kraków, Poland |
| Type | National museum |
| Director | Andrzej Betlej |
| Website | www.muzeum.krakow.pl |
The National Museum in Kraków (Polish: Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie), popularly abbreviated as MNK, established in 1879, is the main branch of Poland's National Museum, which has several independent branches with permanent collections around the country. The Museum consists of 21 departments which are divided by art period; 11 galleries, 2 libraries, and 12 conservation workshops. It holds some 780,000 art objects, spanning from classical archeology to modern art, with special focus on Polish painting.
Kraków National Museum was first housed at the upper floor of the Renaissance Sukiennice building located at the Main Square in the Kraków Old Town, now home to one of its most popular divisions in the city. The construction of the Museum's contemporary New Main Building located at 3 Maja Street, started in 1934, but was interrupted by World War II. It was fully completed only in 1992, after the collapse of the Eastern Block. The collections – consisting of several hundred thousand items in total – are kept in big part in the Main Building where the administrative offices are located, but also in the nine of its divisions around the city.
During World War II the collection was looted by the German fascist invaders. After the war the Polish Government retrieved many of the works seized by the Germans. Still more than 1,000 artifacts are missing, including The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (which Polish authorities allege was stolen in 1939 by German invaders, reportedly taken away and sold in Vienna, and currently resides in the Kunsthistorisches Museum there) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (donated to the Museum in 1937 by Stanisław Ursyn-Rusiecki) and priceless others.
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