Baia Mare Art Museum (Baia Mare Artistic Centre County Art Museum)

The Muzeul Județean de Artă „Centrul Artistic Baia Mare” (Baia Mare Artistic Centre County Art Museum) is at 8 Strada 1 Mai in the city of Baia Mare, in the former Salt Office building. The building was put up in 1748 and has been modernised over time. The museum is run by Maramureș County Council. The collection is tied to the Baia Mare painters' colony. In May 1896 Simon Hollósy, helped by Károly Ferenczy, István Réti, János Thorma and Béla Iványi-Grünwald, opened a private painting school in Baia Mare as an alternative to the academic style. The Hollósy School (1896-1901) worked in Munich in winter and in Baia Mare in summer. Over more than a century, more than 3,000 artists have worked in Baia Mare. The museum's collection began in 1960 with 195 pieces, as the modern and contemporary Romanian art section of the Maramureș Regional Museum, and has grown to more than 3,900 works. The permanent exhibition, "Centrul Artistic Baia Mare. Repere europene între tradiții și inovații" (The Baia Mare Artistic Centre: European landmarks between tradition and innovation), shows almost 400 works made exclusively by artists who have worked in Baia Mare from 1896 to the present. The museum also holds temporary exhibitions. The museum building is a class A historic monument, LMI code MM-II-m-A-04434 ("Oficiul Salinelor, azi Muzeul de Artă"), dated 1748. The museum is open to the public.