Calouste Gulbenkian Museum

The garden - cushions waiting for a customer!
see all photos »

Day 2 - After a great hotel breakfast (5 star Hotel Corinthia for this visit - only the best for hp) and a short visit with the team setting up the marketing PR event ("please Brian, we don't need you until tomorrow - go enjoy Lisbon" - I can follow orders!) I headed off to the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian - a medium distance walk from my hotel.

The museum is made up of exhibits from the private collection of a very wealthy Armenian who moved to Portugal during WWII and lived out his life here.  The grounds are a wonderful public garden, and there are actually two museums (the main museum I visited, and a Museum of Modern Art) and a research library.

I was struck that this was the work of one private collector

One of many European tapestries
see all photos »

The collection spans from  Egyptian , Mesopotamian, and Persian artifacts (many, many rugs and tapestries from Persia), Chinese Ceramics, Greek and Roman coins,  illuminated manuscripts from Asia and Europe, European furniture, to pieces from more recent masters.  I saw works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Degas, Casset, Monet, Manet, Rodin, and many others I cannot remember at the moment.

I was struck that this was the work of one private collector, had he made a different choice upon his death no one would be able to see these grand works of art today!

"Statue of Diana" - beautiful
see all photos »

The museum was very modern with vast open galleries and little restriction on approaching the artwork- few were under glass.  I was able to lean close to the single Monet in the collection to examine the brushstrokes of the master, a rare privilege.

After a short break at the hotel room for some work and blogging, I'll be meeting up with one of my presenter partners, and hopefully heading back down to Baixa for dinner (if she is up to it after her travels today!)