As part of the Liget Budapest Project, the New National Gallery will be constructed based on the designs of Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) on the former site of the Petőfi Csarnok concert venue. The architects of the new museum were selected following an international tender process. For the winning design, the Japanese architects envisioned an interactive and welcoming, yet modern 21st century building to occupy the Városliget. The Japanese firm already has a number of outstanding museum buildings to its name, including the new Louvre Museum in Lens and the New Contemporary Art Museum in New York.
The new Budapest institution will house the combined modern collections of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery, returning to the tradition of presenting masterpieces of Hungarian and international fine art together as it was in the Museum of Fine Arts in the 50s and as is customary all over Europe. In addition, the new gallery will be the largest museum in Hungary to chronicle the modern development of European fine art by collecting, preserving and displaying the outstanding works of Hungarian and world art history from the 19th century.
The New National Gallery will find a home in a building of almost 50,000 square metres that is modern even by global standards. It meets the challenges of the 21st century while also befitting the institutions of the Városliget built more than 100 years ago, as well as celebrating one of the country's most important art collections. The new museum has taken on the mission of not only preserving the legacy entrusted to it, but also of extending this to the public in the form of an institution that can be accessed and experienced by as wide an audience as possible. The permanent exhibitions to be housed in the gallery will be more comprehensive than ever, while engaging temporary exhibitions and associated artistic programmes will make the venue an exciting centre of 21st century Hungarian and European artistic life.
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