Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul

This is a private museum - one of the most popular type of museums in Istanbul. It was opened by a wealthy the Sabanci family to perpetuate their names, linking it with the city culture and history. After visiting this museum, you will understand this family has achieved its goal.

This museum contains everything associated with fine arts of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire from the earliest times to the present day. The Sabanci family - the second richest dynasty in Turkey after Koc - didn’t grudge money on rare exhibits. For example, items of Arabic and Ottoman calligraphy, documents of national importance, historical papers relating to religion and politics... And painting, of course! Only here you will see many pictures drawn by the painters of the Ottoman Empire.

The building of the museum, which exhibits all of these precious items, has its value. This is former summer residence of a family of millionaires, and now this is a room of private university. Before it was in the list of tenure of the Sabanci family, the mansion was a government building of the Ottoman Empire. It is usually used as a place of residence of the officials responsible for the administration of Egypt. Then the building was got out of pawn and presented to King Nicholas I of Montenegro by order of the Sultan. After that, there lived many nobles and royalty, and only in the mid 20th century the founder of the family dynasty Haci Omer Sabanci bought this house with a large sum of money. They put a bronze horse in the courtyard of the mansion, and the villa has been renamed into "The Equestrian Villa".

Today’s exposition, located at 4 thousand square meters, has more than 400 manuscripts from 14 to 20 centuries, 532 paintings, Chinese and Japanese porcelain and a collection of antique furniture. The exhibits of Sabanci Museum in Istanbul are very prestigious, they are often brought to the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The museum is open daily from 10:00 to 18:00 except Wednesdays (from 10:00 to 22:00). The admission is 10 YTL, it’s about $6.