Mikkel Museum

The Mikkel Museum in the former kitchen building of Kadriorg Palace

The Mikkel Museum is an art museum in Tallinn , opened in 1997 , which houses the collection of Johannes Mikkel and is part of the Estonian Art Museum . The museum is located in the kitchen building of Kadriorg Palace in the district of the same name in the Estonian capital. The collection includes Estonian, European and Chinese works of art.

history

In 1995 Johannes Mikkel transferred his collection to the Estonian Art Museum. In 1996 the former kitchen building of Kadriorg Palace was renovated. The building was erected in 1754 as a single storey; in the 1820s, Tsar Nicholas I added another storey and a mansard roof . The restoration was carried out by the art museum together with the Laansoo architecture office and the architect Katrin Etverk . The Mikkel Museum was opened on June 25, 1997.

The collection was mainly created after the Second World War , in which Mikkel lost most of the works of art in his possession. He ran several second-hand bookshops and was able to make contacts that he used to expand his own collection. In addition to old master graphics and paintings, he mainly collected Chinese and European porcelain . In the 1970s he managed to acquire the graphic collection from Woldemar Oldekop , one of the most important Estonian collectors of the first half of the 20th century.