Exhibits from the collections of the State Museum of History and the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan Photo: @acdfuz
On August 27, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev laid the first stone for the construction of the country’s new National Museum, the presidential press service reported.
The building was designed by the Japanese architectural firm Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in collaboration with the German company Atelier Brückner. It will include three museum floors, a two-level underground floor, and auxiliary facilities. The general contractor is the Chinese company CSCEC International Construction. According to the press service, the museum’s architecture symbolizes the union of Eastern and Western cultures through the combination of circles, squares, and triangles.
The museum will be the largest in Uzbekistan, with 40,000 square meters of space to exhibit up to 10,000 artifacts. The complex will also feature conference halls, restaurants, and children’s playgrounds. It will provide modern facilities for research, restoration, and storage.
The institution will form a unified architectural ensemble with the Abulkasym Madrasah, the Palace of Friendship of Peoples, and the National Park of Uzbekistan.
“This museum will become a center of science, enlightenment, and culture, conveying our three-thousand-year-old rich heritage to our people, the international community, and future generations,” Mirziyoyev said during the ceremony.
Plans also include cooperation with leading global museums such as the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to host exhibitions and exchange artifacts.
According to the presidential press service, more than 1.2 million artifacts are currently held in 30 museums in Tashkent. Of these, 100,000 belong to the State Museum of Arts, but only 2,400 are on display. Over 97,000 rare works remain in storage due to a shortage of exhibition space.
According to the Statistics Agency of Uzbekistan, as of January 2023, the country had 134 museums. By January 2025, the number of artifacts in museum collections had reached 2.7 million.
