Israel Museum

Aerial view of the Israel Museum from the south (with the Knesset in the background)

The Israel Museum ( Hebrew מוזיאון ישראל"Museon jisrael") is the national museum of Israel . It is located in the western part of Jerusalem , not far from the Knesset , in the Givat Ram district, and was built in 1965 under the then mayor Teddy Kollek . The museum's first chairman of the board after it was founded was Willem Sandberg . The Israel Antiquities Authority , the Bible Lands Museum and the Israeli National Library are also nearby .

The museum covers an area of around 50,000 m² , including a garden of 24,000 m², and is visited by more than 950,000 people annually.

The museum consists of four sections:

Art department with the Billy Rose art garden
Department of Judaica and Jewish Ethnography
Archaeological Department. These include the Shrine of the Book with some of the Dead Sea Scrolls .
Youth department

Billy Rose Art Garden

The Billy Rose Art Garden was designed by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi on the western slope of the museum campus. There are sculptures by famous sculptors from the 19th and 20th centuries on the site.

Arturo Schwarz collection

In 1998 Arturo Schwarz donated his more than 700-piece collection of Dada and Surrealist art to the museum on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the State of Israel. In 1972 the museum had already received 13 replicas of Marcel Duchamp's ready-mades , followed in 1991 by his Arturo Schwarz Dada and Surrealist Library .

Pavilions

In the Weisbord Pavilion opposite the entrance there is a small Rodin collection and exhibitions by contemporary artists. In Walter and Charlotte Floersheimer Pavilion for Impressionist art paintings by Corot, Degas, Gauguin, Matisse, Monet and Renoir are on display.

Archaeological treasures

In addition to the Dead Sea scrolls kept in the “Shrine of the Book” and other objects attributed to the Jewish sect of the Essenes , a number of other treasures can be admired in the museum: for example the copper hoard from Nahal Mishmar , a bronze tank statue of Hadrian from Tel Shalem , the floor mosaic of a Byzantine church (600 AD), a seal of a friend of the prophet Jeremiah named Baruch , or the oldest surviving sailing ship model in the world (approx. 4000 years old).

Model of Jerusalem at the time of the second temple

Outside there is a model of Jerusalem at the time of the second temple . The model was originally set up on the grounds of the Holyland Hotel in Jerusalem, but since 2006 it has been located on the museum area next to the “Shrine of the Book”.