Museum of Foreign Art

The Museum of Foreign Art in Riga is one of the largest art museums in Latvia, as well as one of the main attractions of the city. The museum was opened in 1920 in the southern wing of Riga Castle. The collections were moved to the former Riga Exchange in 2012. The exposition of the museum is the largest in Latvia.

It is represented by a collection of Western European art, Middle Eastern art, ancient Egyptian art dating back to 5000 BC and world art, including contemporary art. For 90 years of its existence, the museum has collected a huge number of art objects of foreign countries in its collection. It presents artifacts of different eras and peoples from the V century BC to the beginning of the XX century. The collection consists of several sections: art of Ancient Egypt, Ancient World, Far East and Western Europe.

The gem of the museum’s collection consists of works of Dutch art of the Golden Age, Belgian art of the 30s, as well as canvases from the time of German romanticism. No less valuable are exhibits representing the XX century, and the collection of oriental art, works from India, Japan and China, are considered the largest in the Baltics. Many exhibits were bequeathed to the museum by collectors or donated. Today in the collection of the museum there are more than 1000 paintings.