One hundred years ago, the Museum of Ethnography, National Art, Decorative and Industrial Art was founded in Bucharest, nowadays the Romanian Peasant Museum. Now, on the anniversary of a new century of existence of the museum, Romfilatelia, the company specialized in editing and trading Romanian postage stamps, introduces into circulation the philatelic issue Romanian Peasant Museum Centenary.
The Romanian Peasant Museum is not just a museum; it is not that type of museum you only visit once in your life and then pass on to another. This museum was created so that, every time we want to return to origins, we could visit its rooms full of treasure collections from the patrimony of the peasant art and civilization. With its more than 100,000 items, including apparel collections, pottery, ornaments, furniture, icons on wood and glass, xylographs, religious objects, fabrics, carpets, tools, but also an important collection of foreign popular art, due to the way the museum space was conceived and due to the organization of more than 60 exhibitions of great cultural resonance on all the meridians of the world, the Romanian Peasant Museum decisively contributed to the general development of the theory and practice of ethnographic exhibition.
This recognition took place in 1996, when the Romanian Peasant Museum received the “European Museum of the Year Award” (EMYA), conferred by the European Museum Forum. During the entire year 2006, on the occasion of the centenary of the museum, all the manifestations shall take place under the auspices of an eloquent motto: A century of singularity, a year of hospitality. In the month of March of this year, the Romanian Peasant Museum received the “Radu Florescu” award for museum management and marketing, granted by the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, General Direction of the National Cultural Patrimony, for the project “Museum Night”.
The history of this museum, tempestuous like that of other museums that had to cope with the 50 years of forced political and cultural changes, extends on more than a hundred years. In 1875, upon the suggestion of Titu Maiorescu, the first popular textile art section was formed, attached to the National Museum of Antiques. However, this early idea became consistent only on the 1st of October 1906, when, with the support of another personality of our culture, Spiru Haret, the Museum of Ethnography, National Art, Decorative and Industrial Art was created. The management of this institution was ensured, between 1906 and 1948, by its first manager, Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcas, who, in 1906, changed its name into the Museum of Ethnography and National Art.
In 1912 started the erection of the museum building, which lasted until 1941. The building, achieved in the so-called neo-Romanian style, which is in fact a national-historic architectonic synthesis, is the work of the architect N. Ghika-Budesti.
Between the years 1912-1948, the museum was renamed Museum of National Art, then its name suffered many changes, so that, in 1953, it became the Museum of Popular Art of the Republic, and since 1978 until 1990, due to its unification to the Village Museum, it received the name of Village and Popular Art Museum. Finally, in 1990, it became the Romanian Peasant Museum.
The way in which it is presented to its visitors is an allegory of life, it is always the return to origins, without which no people, no nation could survive. The Romanian spirituality is unaltered in this museum space, where preconceptions disappear and make room for revelation.
The postage stamps of the philatelic issue presents:
- the image of a head dress of Arges dating back to the 20th century (postage stamp with the face value of Lei 0.40)
- the image of a Turkish string of Dobruja, dating back to the 19th century (the postage stamp with the face vale of Lei 0.70)
- the image of a coin necklace from Bucovina dating back to the 19th century (postage stamp with the face value of Lei 1.60)
- the image of Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcas, founding manager of the museum (the postage stamp with the face value of Lei 3.10).
The issue is completed by a set of 4 maxicards.
