An institution for the collection, preservation, and sharing of Mongolia’s traditional artistic heritage. The Mongolia National Fine Arts Museum, popularly known as The Zanabazar Museum, was founded with the objective of collecting, preserving and displaying Mongolia’s traditional (pre-communism) fine arts.
The museum houses the largest collection of Mongolian Buddhist art in the country, with over 10,000 Buddhist artefacts. Apart from the regular exhibition, the museum also hósts exhibitions of contemporary art and organises workshops, amongst others. On the site, one can view image galleries of the eleven galleries of the Zanabazar Museum. There is also information on the international exhibitions the museum participated in.
The Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts features Mongolian art from prehistory through the early twentieth century. The present museum building, located in central Ulaanbaatar, was constructed in 1905 by a Russian merchant. At various times in its history, the building served as a Chinese bank, a Russian Red Army soldier’s office, and a department store. The building was inaugurated as the Museum of Fine Arts in 1966.
Organized thematically, the galleries are devoted to prehistoric art, work by Zanabazar, painted thangkas, silk appliques, the Buddhist tsam dance, nomadic traditions, and paintings by the early twentieth-century master B. Sharav.
