Piatra Neamț Art Museum

The Art Museum stands at 1 Piața Curtea Domnească, in the historic centre of Piatra Neamț, next to Stephen the Great's Tower and the Ethnography Museum. It is one of the units of the Neamț National Museum Complex. The building was put up in 1930 for the „Lascăr Catargiu” Boys' Primary School no. 1. According to the museum, it was designed by the architects Roger Bolomey and Fr. Droz, built by Carol Zani and decorated by the sculptor Vicenzo Puschiasis. The art collection began as a section of the Archaeological Museum, approved by the Ministry of Culture on 17 October 1960 at the initiative of the priest and archaeologist Constantin Matasă (1878-1971), who had founded the Archaeological Museum in 1934. In 1980 the section became an art museum and moved into the present building, which was restored in 2010-2011 as part of the project to rehabilitate the Curtea Domnească historic area. The museum has six rooms, five of them for the permanent exhibition. The interwar room has works by Nicolae Tonitza, Gheorghe Petrașcu, Francisc Șirato, Ștefan Popescu, Camil Ressu, Ion Țuculescu and Corneliu Baba, and Ion Jalea's sculpture „Dragoș și zimbrul”; another room covers the interwar avant-garde, with Victor Brauner and Marcel Iancu. On show are also tapestries by Aurelia Vasiliu-Ghiață, paintings by Dumitru Ghiață and sculpture by Ion Irimescu, Milița Petrașcu and George Apostu, followed by postmodern and contemporary art. Much of the collection came from donations, including those of Paul Gotcu, Aurelia Vasiliu-Ghiață, Simona Vasiliu-Chintilă and Iulia Hălăucescu. The sixth room, named after Iulia Hălăucescu, hosts temporary exhibitions. The building is a listed historic monument, LMI code NT-II-m-B-10566. The museum is of national importance, belongs to the Neamț National Museum Complex under the Neamț County Council, and was re-accredited in 2019.