Following the proclamation of the Republic, Turkish museums developed considerably, mainly due to the importance Atatürk had attached to the research and exhibition of artifacts of Anatolia. When the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, there were only the Archaeological Museum of İstanbul called the "Asar-ı Atika Müzesi", the Istanbul Military Museum housed in the St. Irene Church, the Islamic Museum (Evkaf-ı Islamiye Müzesi) in the Suleymaniye Complex in Istanbul and the smaller museums of the Ottoman Empire Museum (Müze-i Humayun) in a few large cities of Anatolia.
The Turkish Archaeological Museum (Türk Asar-ı Atikası), which was established during the first years of the Republic, carried out studies to gather, collate, catalogue and protect archaeological and ethnographical finds. In many provinces of Anatolia, monumental buildings such as ancient churches, mosques and caravanserais were restored and converted into museums. Topkapı Palace, which was converted into a museum with the furniture and works of art on the premises, was opened to the public in 1927. The same year, the Islamic Museum was reorganized as the "Museum of Turkish and Islamic Works of Art" and the Mevlana Dervish Lodge in Konya was also converted into a museum.
The construction of the Ankara Ethnographical Museum, the first building designed as a museum, was completed in 1930. New museums were established in Bursa, Adana, Manisa, İzmir, Kayseri, Antalya, Afyon, Bergama and Edirne. The Hittite Museum, which was established in the Mahmut Pasha Bedesten in Ankara in 1940, was restored and renovated and converted into "Museum of Anatolian Civilizations” in 1968.
Today, there are 99 museum directorates attached to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 92 private museums and 1,204 private collections.
Famous quotes containing the words museums and/or turkey:
“Museums are just a lot of lies, and the people who make art their business are mostly imposters.... We have infected the pictures in museums with all our stupidities, all our mistakes, all our poverty of spirit. We have turned them into petty and ridiculous things.”
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)
“A turkey is more occult and awful than all the angels and archangels. In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, he has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)