# State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan, Tashkent > Uzbekistan’s national art museum is **closed**: the building at 16 Amir Temur Avenue is shut for reconstruction and no reopening date has been announced. There are no tickets and no way inside. The 1974 building itself joined UNESCO’s Tashkent Modernism listing in July 2026, so it is worth 10–15 minutes from the outside on a walk from Amir Timur Square. Web page: https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-art-museum - City: [Tashkent](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent), Uzbekistan - YesGo score: 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) - Time on site: 1 h 30 min - Opening hours: Closed for reconstruction; no reopening date announced - With kids: Better without small kids - Status: Temporarily closed for reconstruction, no reopening date - Tickets: Not on sale while the museum is closed - Address: 16 Amir Temur Avenue (older listings: 16 Movarounnahr Street) - Getting there: Walk about 1 km south from Amir Timur Square, ≈ 15 min - Time needed: 10–15 minutes to see the building from outside - Instead: Museum of Applied Arts, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Romanov Palace from outside - Coordinates: 41.30276, 69.27784 - Facts checked: 30.10.2026 ## Key facts - **Closed** — for reconstruction — a reopening date will follow the works (source: Agency for Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan via UzA, October 2026; Afisha.uz; Advantour) - **1918** — founded as the People’s University Museum (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Advantour) - **UNESCO** — the building is one of 10 Tashkent Modernism sites inscribed in July 2026 (source: Advantour; Euronews; English Wikipedia) - **≈ 100 works** — from Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich and other private collections formed the core (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Advantour) - **1974** — the current building — an aluminium-clad, glazed cube (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Afisha.uz) - **3 architects** — I. Abdulov, A. Nikiforov and S. Rosenblum (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **1935** — renamed the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Advantour) - **100,000+** — items in store: painting, sculpture, applied art, archaeology (source: Russian Wikipedia; Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation) - **Tadao Ando** — the Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect behind the reconstruction concept (source: Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation; Google Arts & Culture) - **20,000 m²** — planned floor area after reconstruction, 7,000 m² of it galleries (source: Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation; Google Arts & Culture) - **4 departments** — Uzbek fine art, Uzbek applied art, Russian and Western art, Far Eastern art (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) > **The museum is closed — you can’t go inside** In October 2026 Uzbekistan’s Agency for Cultural Heritage confirmed the building is **temporarily closed for reconstruction**, with a reopening date to be set once the work is done. Don’t plan 90 minutes of paintings here — give it 10–15 minutes for the façade between other stops. ## Is the State Museum of Arts in Tashkent open? No. The museum is closed to visitors while the building is reconstructed. The ticket desk is shut, there are no tours inside and the permanent collection is not on show anywhere in the building. Neither the Agency for Cultural Heritage nor the museum has given a reopening date; they say it will be announced after the repairs and a new display are finished. When social media posts in October 2026 claimed nothing was happening on site, the agency replied through the state news agency UzA: design documents for repairs, restoration and new power and water systems are ready, and preparatory work is under way. For travellers the takeaway is simple — don’t count on it for your trip. Opening hours you may still see on map apps are leftovers from earlier years, and even those listings disagree with each other. Ignore them for now. ## What the museum is This is **Uzbekistan’s main art museum**. It was founded in 1918 as the People’s University Museum around roughly a hundred works nationalised that April — paintings, drawings, sculpture, furniture and porcelain from **Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich**, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I who lived in exile in Tashkent, and from other private owners. Until 1935 the collection was shown in the Grand Duke’s own mansion, today’s [Romanov Palace](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/romanov-palace). It then moved to the People’s House, took its present name in 1935 and kept growing with transfers from Moscow and Leningrad museums and work by Uzbek artists. Russian Wikipedia puts the holdings at more than **100,000 items** by 2018, from painting and sculpture to folk art, coins and archaeology — only a small share was ever on display. ## What’s in the collection - **Uzbek fine art** — 20th-century painting, including Pavel Benkov and Zinaida Kovalevskaya. - **Uzbek applied art** — suzani embroideries, carpets, ceramics, jewellery and carved wood. - **Russian art** — Borovikovsky, Tropinin, Bryullov, Repin, Shishkin and Vereshchagin’s “Opium Eaters”. - **Western European art** — Italian, French, German, Flemish, Dutch and English works, with names such as Canaletto and David Teniers the Younger. - **Far Eastern art** — the museum’s fourth department. - **Archaeology** — including terracotta sculpture from Khalchayan. - Which galleries reopen first, and how the collection will be hung, has not been announced. ## The 1974 building and its UNESCO listing The present building went up in 1974 on the site of the demolished People’s House, designed by I. Abdulov, A. Nikiforov and S. Rosenblum. It is a plain cube clad in aluminium and marble, glazed on all four sides, and was last renovated in 1997. Uzbekistan added it to its national heritage register in 2024. In **July 2026**, at the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, it became one of ten components of the UNESCO site Tashkent Modernist Architecture — alongside [Chorsu Bazaar](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/chorsu-bazaar) and Kosmonavtlar metro station. That is the reason to stop even while it is closed: it is one of the city’s signature modernist façades. Cross to the far side of the avenue to see the whole block in one frame. ## The Tadao Ando reconstruction The reconstruction concept is by Japanese architect **Tadao Ando**, winner of the Pritzker Prize. According to the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, the museum will double to 20,000 m², with 7,000 m² of galleries, storage big enough for the entire collection, and a new 1.1-hectare park around the building. Separately, the presidential press service said in July 2026 that a **branch of the museum** with a permanent display of about 300 objects will open in the restored Romanov Palace. No date was given — treat it as a plan, not something you can visit yet. ## How to get to the State Museum of Arts 1. Start at Amir Timur Square — take the metro to Amir Temur Xiyoboni station. 2. Walk south along Amir Temur Avenue for about 1 km, roughly 15 minutes. 3. The museum is at No. 16: a glass-and-stone cube with a granite canopy over the entrance. 4. Cross to the other side of the avenue for the full view of the façade. 5. Optional: walk about 20 minutes west to Kosmonavtlar metro station, another UNESCO-listed piece of Tashkent modernism. ## Where to see art in Tashkent instead For Uzbek crafts, head to the [Museum of Applied Arts](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-applied-arts-museum) — a separate museum, often confused with this one. Suzani, ceramics and jewellery are its core. For contemporary art, the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) opened in September 2026 in a converted power station. Unofficially, entry is free with advance registration and it is closed on Mondays — check before you go. For the backstory, walk to the Romanov Palace, where the collection began. And if you have an hour left, ride the [Tashkent Metro](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-metro): its stations are galleries in their own right. ## Before you go: checklist - [ ] I know it’s closed and I’m only seeing the building - [ ] Planned 10–15 minutes, not 90 - [ ] Picked an alternative: Applied Arts museum or CCA - [ ] Some cash in som for taxis and markets - [ ] Checked the news for a reopening before the trip ## Tashkent history sights compared Historic places in Tashkent rated by YesGo. - [Tashkent Metro](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-metro) — YesGo score 50/100 (Yes, go) · 1 h · 2,500 som by card, 3,000 cash - [Romanov Palace](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/romanov-palace) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 15 min · Free, outside only - [Navoi Theatre](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/navoi-theatre) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 20 min · Shows from 77,000 som - [Hazrati Imam Complex](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/hazrati-imam) — YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · Free; Quran museum has a small fee - [Chorsu Bazaar](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/chorsu-bazaar) — YesGo score 39/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · Free - [State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-art-museum) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Closed for reconstruction - [Museum of Applied Arts](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-applied-arts-museum) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ≈ UZS 30,000–40,000, unofficial ## Central Tashkent on foot: modernism and mansions The Navoi Theatre, Grand Duke Romanov’s mansion, the art museum façade and the Museum of Applied Arts. YesGo fits in the timing and walks. 1. [Navoi Theatre](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/navoi-theatre) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 20 min · Shows from 77,000 som 2. [Romanov Palace](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/romanov-palace) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 15 min · Free, outside only 3. [State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-art-museum) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h 30 min · Closed for reconstruction 4. [Museum of Applied Arts](https://yesgo.io/uzbekistan/tashkent/tashkent-applied-arts-museum) — YesGo score 36/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · ≈ UZS 30,000–40,000, unofficial ## Good to know Don’t mix it up with the Museum of Applied Arts (a different museum elsewhere in the centre), the Centre for Contemporary Arts, or the Fine Arts Gallery of Uzbekistan, which hosts shows including the Tashkent Biennale. The famous Savitsky avant-garde collection is in Nukus, a different city. ## Tips - Don’t make a special trip — catch the façade between Amir Timur Square and the Romanov Palace. - For suzani, ceramics and jewellery, go to the Museum of Applied Arts. - Into modernism? Build your own UNESCO walk: this cube, Kosmonavtlar station and the dome of Chorsu Bazaar. - Payment: carry Uzbek som in cash for markets and street taxis, or use a ride-hailing app; hotels and larger cafés usually take Visa and Mastercard. - Look for reopening news from Uzbekistan’s Agency for Cultural Heritage — map listings lag behind. ## Questions ### Is the State Museum of Arts in Tashkent open? No. It is temporarily closed for reconstruction, and the Agency for Cultural Heritage says a reopening date will be announced once the work is finished. ### When will the State Museum of Arts reopen? No date has been given. It depends on the repair and restoration works and the preparation of a new display. ### How much are tickets to the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan? No tickets are on sale while the museum is closed, and post-reopening prices have not been announced. ### What are the State Museum of Arts opening hours? There are none at the moment — the museum is closed. Hours shown on map apps are out of date. ### Where is the State Museum of Arts in Tashkent? At 16 Amir Temur Avenue in the city centre, about 1 km south of Amir Timur Square. Older listings give 16 Movarounnahr Street. ### Who is redesigning the State Museum of Arts? Japanese architect Tadao Ando produced the reconstruction concept. The museum is set to double in size to 20,000 m². ### Is it worth visiting while it’s closed? Only in passing. The 1974 building is part of UNESCO’s Tashkent Modernism listing, and 10–15 minutes outside is enough. ### Where can I see art in Tashkent right now? Try the Museum of Applied Arts for Uzbek crafts and the new Centre for Contemporary Arts, which opened in September 2026. ### Is the State Museum of Arts the same as the Museum of Applied Arts? No. They are two separate museums in different parts of central Tashkent. ## How we checked The closure comes from the Agency for Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan (via UzA, 15 October 2026) and is confirmed by Afisha.uz and Advantour, so status and ticket rows are marked official. Uzbektourism’s English news item on the 2026 Biennale listed the “State Museum of Arts” as a venue, but the Russian original of the same item names the Fine Arts Gallery of Uzbekistan — we follow the original. We don’t show old opening hours: listings disagree (10:00–17:00 vs 9:00–18:00). History, holdings and architects are checked against at least two sources; Picasso ceramics in the collection appear in only one, so we leave them out. The walking route is estimated from Wikidata coordinates and marked as being checked; the CCA entry rules are unofficial. ## Sources - UzA (National News Agency of Uzbekistan): statement by the Agency for Cultural Heritage on the art museum reconstruction, 15.10.2026 - Afisha.uz: State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan — address and status - Advantour: State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan; news on Tashkent Modernism joining the UNESCO list, 28.07.2026 - Euronews: Tashkent’s modernist architecture joins the UNESCO World Heritage List, 02.08.2026 - Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF): State Museum of Arts reconstruction programme - WeProject: museum branch in the Romanov Palace, 18.07.2026 - Voyage.uz: guide to Tashkent’s new museums and cultural spaces, 2026 - English and Russian Wikipedia: Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan; Wikidata Q4146885 --- This is the Markdown version of a YesGo page for AI assistants. Quote the web page link above, not this file.