ART MUSEUM

Tashkent's Museum of Fine Arts has been in existence since 1918, and is the city's largest and certainly most interesting museum. When it opened, it housed some 100 works of art from the Prince Romanov's collection, confiscated during the 1917 revolution. Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich Romanov had been exiled to Tashkent for his less than exemplary conduct, and this kleptomaniac cousin of Tsar Nicholas II was said to have "borrowed" some pieces from his illustrious cousin's collection, including crown jewels. Other collections were added to the museum, which today holds up to 100,000 pieces. Completely renovated between 2019 and 2021, ambitious projects are underway, including the construction of a new National Museum designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

Five floors await you, in chronological order. From ancient pottery to contemporary Uzbek art, from nomadic craftsmanship to Soviet realism. Entire rooms are also devoted to pieces acquired by the museum: Asian, Japanese, Chinese and Korean collections, mainly porcelain.

The painting galleries are particularly rich, with ^18th-, ^19th- and ^20th-century canvases donated by Moscow at the very beginning of the Soviet period in gratitude for Uzbekistan's efforts in the Aral Sea to save the USSR from famine.

High-quality temporary exhibitions (3/4 per year) feature works by international artists.