Around the Museums of the world...

11:00 a.m.

The National Museum, as the name indicates, is the institution preserving the artistic heritage of the Nation.

MNBA - Buenos Aires, Argentina

The State Hermitage Museum - St Petersbourg, Russia

In the 18th century, in London, Sir Sloane's collection gave birth to the British Museum, Europe's first National museum (1748). Back then, the Prince of Wales expressed that such house was a gift to the Nation, a benefit for knowledge and a recognition from all of Great Britain, open to the public for posterity. The Parliament declared it National Museum in 1753.

The British Museum - London, United Kingdom

The Louvre Museum opened in 1793, four years after the French Revolution. It's THE National Museum, not only because it belongs to the Nation and it's run by the State, but because of the nature of its collections. It did not focus only on National collections, but on European art in general.

Musée du Louvre - París, Francia

After WWII there has been a shift in general interests from political to economical, social and cultural, but mainly towards banal issues. This inevitably led to a questioning of the image of the past displayed in museums.

Smithsonian American Art Museum - Washington DC, USA

The future of National Museums will depend of the transformations affecting the way we study, think and visualise art and how that will materialise in the people.