The Hungarian National Museum opened a large-scale exhibition in the Shanghai Museum on 2 June 2017. „Sissi and Hungary – the luxurious life of the Hungarian aristocracy in the 17-19th centuries” is based on carefully selected items from different collections of the 215-year-old institution. The Hungarian National Museum is among the first museum not only from Hungary but Central Europe to introduce itself with its own research and item in the Chinese metropolis. The exhibition will go on a tour in three other cities in China from September.

„Sissi and Hungary – the luxurious life of the Hungarian aristocracy in the 17-19th centuries” showcases more than 150 original artefacts in the Shanghai Museum to present how members of the Hungarian aristocracy lived their lives in those four centuries – starting from the late Middle Ages in the Habsburg era.

The fact that the exhibition was realized by an institution that is also part of the story makes it even more interesting. The Hungarian National Museum itself had been founded 215 years ago by an enlightened aristocrat, Count Ferenc Széchényi. He, his fellow aristocrats and civilians joining the fundraising campaign for the future museum of the nation had one aim in common: to start a repository of the Hungarian culture and history. The present curators and historians of the museum (Eszter Aczél, Csilla Kollár, Tibor S. Kovács) were following this thinking when compiling the exhibition to tell about the rich and eventful past of the country.

The Hungarian aristocracy – similarly to that of other nations of Europe at that time – had a high level of education and lifestyle. However, being an aristocrat not only meant having a big fortune but acquiring a lot of knowledge – starting from mastery in etiquette and good manners, being well educated at an international level, having good skills as a leader and being a man of arms. The objects presented in the Shanghai Museum – clothing, furniture, pictures and paintings, weapons, jewellery and silverware – were not only serving the members of aristocracy on a daily basis but were also representing by their beaty the immense richness the aristocracy possessed and also the immense gap that existed between the aristocray and the rest of the society. The exhibition also presents other items not falling into these categories. One part of the collection is comprised of famous paintings and graphics depicting the figures of Queen Maria Theresa and Sissi who still play an important role in the Hungarian historical thinking and considered popular up to our times.

The exhibition showcasing a selection of carefully picked, representative items from the collections of the Hungarian National Museum based on a Chinese-Hungarian cooperation builds a great mental bridge over the distances between Hungary and China by putting this small piece of the Hungarian history into focus. „Sissi and Hungary – the luxurious life of the Hungarian aristocracy in the 17-19th centuries” will be on display at the Shanghai Museum from 2 June to 3 September 2017, at the Palace Museum in Beijing from 28 September and from 3 January 2018 at the Yunnan Provincial Museum in Kunming. The final stop of the tour will take place in the land of the Terracotta Army in Xian from 28 May 2018.

For more information or an interview on the series of exhibition in China please contact:
Marianna Berényi
E-mail: berenyi.marianna@hnm.hu
Phone: +36307887552