Museology

The number of private museums in Turkey has exceeded the number of state museums for the first time.

According to information provided by the Cultural Heritages and Museums General Directorate, there are 192 museums affiliated with the Culture and Tourism Ministry, while the number of private museums has risen to 193.

Culture Ministry figures indicate a significant increase in visitors to some of the country’s 38 most important archaeological sites and museums in the second quarter of this year, an improvement that officials attribute to the extension of opening hours.

Cultural tourism in Greece and research into related issues are in urgent need of comprehensive development, the Center of Economic Planning and Research (KEPE) said in its latest bulletin.

A police officer from Greece’s antiquities protection department has been arrested, accused of being part of a smuggling ring that was trying to sell an ancient marble statue worth an estimated 1 million euros.

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry has initiated a new project to revive the fortunes of the country’s museums and ancient sites by seeking to emulate some of the world’s leading cultural spaces.

The legacy of late Turkish tile master Sıtkı Olçar, who was selected as a living human treasure by UNESCO and died in 2010, aged 62, survives at a museum that has recently opened. Located in the village of Sofa at the 35th kilometer of Kütahya-Eskişehir highway, the museum displays his tools used in fishing and his tiles.

Archeology is a branch of science that researches, documents and tries to interpret, based on material findings, the cultural and social orders of human communities that lived in the past. Ancient artifacts are preserved not because of their aesthetic beauties, but because they are historic documents.   

Borusan Contemporary opens the summer with an exclusive exhibition to open on June 14.

Thousands of artifacts have been sent to well over a hundred exhibits in different corners of the globe over the past decade, according to the ministry Turkey’s treasures continue to be seen by millions around the world, with artifacts ranging from ancient Hittite objects to the glories of the Ottoman Empire being exhibited at prestigious museums.

The Istanbul Archaeology Museum has sent a team to inspect the route of Istanbul’s third bridge after reports that contractors have failed to inform museums regarding the myriad archaeological findings unearthed on the roads connecting to the new bridge crossing the Bosphorus.