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12 Városligeti fasor, Budapest H-1068
György Ráth, famous art collector and the first director of the Museum of Applied Arts, purchased a villa in Városligeti fasor which later became the museum bearing his name. The villa was built in 1870-71 and was most probably designed by Miklós Ybl. Ráth commissioned the architect Géza Györgyi to carry out certain changes to the building; it was then that the existing Art Nouveau-style banisters were installed. The original pieces of furniture in the villa were items from Ráth's collection.
The building, which was turned into a museum in 1907, suffered a bomb attack during the siege of Budapest. The majority of the furniture and works of art were damaged or destroyed. The items from the collection that had been removed to the Museum of Applied Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts before the siege survived, and currently enrich the collections of these museums. The building was renovated after the war. In 1955 it housed a Chinese guest exhibition, the material of which was donated in its entirety by the Chinese government to the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts. Since then the György Ráth Museum has functioned as an exhibition ground of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Eastern Asiatic Arts .
The villa has protected status as a historic building. The remaining pieces of the original interior design are the staircase and its wooden panelling, the banisters, the chandelier, the doors and the Art Nouveau-style windows. At the time of the siege the furniture of one room alone, the dining room on the first floor, remained in its original place. Restoration of the partially ruined furniture was carried out in the 1990s, and the dining room was opened to the public under the name of 'György Ráth Memorial Room'.
Since 2002 the György Ráth Museum has been a part of the protective zone of Andrássy Street (in the Word Heritage List).
Current exhibitions at the György Ráth Museum:
The Collecting of Oriental Art in Hungary (permanent exhibition)
György Ráth Memorial Room (permanent exhibition)
Peach Blossom and Mohammedan Blue. The Art of Chinese Ceramics (temporary exhibition)
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The Garden
From spring to autumn the garden of the György Ráth Museum houses the garden events of the Museum. Every year on Midsummer's Night we organise the 'Night of Museums'. This year our Indian evening 'Bengali fire' attracted 1,500 (!) visitors. Between 28 June and 4 July 2004, in cooperation with the Ervin Baktay Foundation, we organised a highly successful daytime camp for children of 10-14 years of age. The programmes centred on Oriental civilisations.
The garden is suitable exceptionally suitable for open-air events. For information about hiring, please contact Zita Bodnár
(phone: 36-1-456-5108; email: bodnar.zita@imm.hu).
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