The luxurious Abaza Palace on the corner of Grecheskaya and Deribasovskaja streets houses one of the best museums in Ukraine, the Museum of Western and Eastern Art. This place represents two of the brightest attractions in Odessa, as the collection of this museum is recognized by experts as the best in the whole country, and the Abaza Palace is one of the most interesting buildings in the city.
The museum was founded in the Abaza Palace in 1923. The exposition was formed from private collections, its collection was handled by the local Committee for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities. In addition, it received works from the art history cabinet of the Novorossiysk University, the City Museum of Fine Arts, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Hermitage Museum, and the Kiev Museum of Western and Eastern Art.
Twenty-three halls of two floors of Palace of Abaza are the place of exposition of three departments of the museum: Eastern, Western European and antique.
Symbolizing the important role of the ancient heritage in the artistic culture of Europe, the antique department is located on the first floor of the museum. Three neighboring halls are occupied by the Department of Eastern Art, which presents the art of ancient Persia, Mongolia, India, Tibet, China and Japan. The halls of the second floor present the exposition of European art, consisting of sculpture, painting and decorative-applied art.
The museum has a magnificent collection of Western European art, including works by famous masters of Italian and Dutch painting, including Caravaggio, Hals, Strozzi and Rubens.
Exhibitions of works by foreign and Ukrainian masters of graphics, painting, photography and decorative arts are regularly held here.
A visit to the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in Odessa is a journey into a unique and fascinating world of art created by painters from Ukraine, Russia and around the world.
You will be able to see the famous works of masters, whose names for centuries have become synonymous with the word art. Among them are canvases of Dutch artist F. Hals «St. Matthew» and «St. Luke», the work of F. Granacci — Florentine painter who lived in the XVI century — «Madonna on the throne», «Amur Threatening» by E.M. Falcone, woodcuts from the series «The Book of Birds» by the famous Japanese master Katsuki Hokusai and many others.
The exhibits stored in the Museum of Western and Eastern Art of Odessa have made this museum famous far beyond not only the city, but the whole Ukraine.