Azerbaijan State Museum of Art named after Mustafaev

Address: 9-11, Niyazi str., Baku AZ1001

Telephone: (994 12) 492 57 11, 492 57 89

Hours of work: from 10°° am to 18°° pm; closed on Mondays

Affiliation: Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Director: Chingiz Farzaliyev

Foundation: 1936

Historic Setting
The Art Museum named after Rustam Mustafayev is actually comprised of two buildings that stand next to each
other. The first building, which serves as the entrance to the museum, houses the European collection. (now under
reconstruction). It was once a private residence built for De Bour, the Business Manager for Rothschild's company,
the forerunner of Shell. Later Nariman Narimanov lived there.

The second building, located higher up Niyazi Street just below the President's Administration now houses the
Azerbaijani art collection. There are over 3,000 items on display in total.

After president Ilham Aliyev got acquainted with the condition of the museum building, he issued a decree on the
capital repair and reconstruction of the Azerbaijan State Art Museum. The Museum opened up his doors to its
visitors in September 2009, after all restoration works have been completed here.

The collection and artifacts of the museum are preserved in chronological sequence and according to
the countries.

1. It is largely government sponsored National type Museum which has a broad scope and
represent and celebrate national character.

2. The Museum staff is as follows:

- 4 guides

- 30 – 35 scientific

- Comparatively larger technical staff (centralized AC system, Security system and etc.)

The internal policy of the museum is that a guide must have a command of at least 2 languages.

3. The newly restored building is mainly meant to host exhibitions, celebrations and high level
concerts. Recently, two exhibitions “Oqtay Sadiqzadeh” and “at the joint of the centuries” have
been organized in the 2nd building of State Art Museum.

4. The Potential visitors of the museum are mainly youth. Moreover, the officials - representatives
of embassies also are in the list of the potential visitors.

5. Digitalization – it should be noted that almost all the collections of museum are digitized for the
purposes of internal collections management and preservation. It is planned to set up this
procedure so as to the whole process will meet international digitization standards.
6. The high season of visiting museums is autumn, when people come back from regions to the
capital and business is more active.

7. Summer is considered as a low season for the museum, because people usually leave to regions,
schools are closed for 3 months vacation while business also becomes stable.

8. The entrance fee is 1 AZN for children, 2 AZN for adults, and 10 AZN for expatriates.

9. The museum doesn’t have any issued promotional materials at the moment. The information
about the museum is only distributed via the booklets and leaflets designed for the specific
exhibitions.

10. According to the representative of the museum, there is no museum to be listed as a competitor
to the Azerbaijan State Art Museum.

While displaying the national collection and artifacts to its visitors, museum also boasts on
exhibiting the collections from Europe such as (…….), Russia and ancient heritage.