Exhibition: 2021 Brukenthal year cultural agenda

Curator / editing for online: Dana Hrib

Born in 1721, Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, Governor of the Grand Principality of Transylvania between 1777 and 1787, remaines in the collective memory through the cultural achievements he has assumed of which, first of all, von Brukenthal is the founder of the first public museum opened in today’s România territories – the Brukenthal Museum, an institution whose bicentennial activity we celebrated in 2017.

The accomplishment of his work as a collector brings together over 1,000 paintings (15th – 18thcenturies), about 1,000 prints (16th – 18th century European engraving) and 2,000 plates included in albums, a book fund of about 16,000 volumes, impressive collections of numismatics, minerals and antiques given to the public, which he considered his spiritual heir.

Protector of local artistic circles, from painters to musicians, Samuel von Brukenthal set the patterns of the Sibiu cultural environment that would materialize, in 2007, in the first European Capital of Culture in Romania.
For all the above, in 2021, Brukenthal National Museum celebrated 300 years since the birth of its founder through “3Brukenthal Centuries” program.