Founded by the Suna-Iran Kirak Foundation, this private museum opened in 2005 in the former Bristol Hotel. After the reconstruction, only the facade in the style of the Victorian era remained from the old building.
The museum has 8 floors - the top five are reserved for expositions. The first three floors house permanent exhibitions: an exhibition of coffee china from Kutahya and other ceramics; "Collection of measures and weights of Anatolia"; "Portraits of the Empire" (portraits of sultans, foreign ambassadors and influential figures of Turkey of different years are presented) and a collection of Turkish paintings of the 17th-19th centuries. The exhibition space is decorated with canvases mainly on traditional subjects: life in a harem, military campaigns, panoramas of Istanbul of past years. The best paintings of Osman Hamdi Bey are also located here - you should especially pay attention to the most expensive Turkish painting - his canvas “Turtle Trainer”.
Also part of the exhibition is occupied by the heritage of contemporary art, museum halls are dedicated to art, interesting lectures, seminars, film screenings, and children can take part in art master classes. On the ground floor of the museum there is a small souvenir shop and a cozy cafe with an Art Deco interior.