The museum is housed in the Constantin Mihail Palace, built from 1898 to 1907 according to the plans of French architect Paul Gottereau.[1] The palace once belonged to Michael Constantine (1837–1908), a member of one of the richest families in Romania [2] and is known as Jean Mihail Palace.[3] The palace is decorated with Carrara marble stairs, Lyon silk walls, Murano glass chandeliers, painted ceilings, partly gilded stucco, and Venetian mirrors.[2] It has hosted kings of Romania, in 1939 the exiled Polish president Ignacy Mościcki (1867–1946), and the former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito (1892–1980).[4]
The museum was founded in 1954. It is the main art museum in Craiova and is a significant tourist attraction for the city.[5] A major attraction of the museum is the gallery dedicated to Constantin Brâncuși, exhibiting six of his early sculptures (including variants of his best-known works): Vitellius (1898), Miss Pogany (1902), The Vainglory (1905), Boy's Head (1906), The Kiss (1907), and Woman Torso (1909). It also has a variety of paintings by important Romanian masters such as Theodor Aman, Nicolae Grigorescu, Vasile Popescu, Ștefan Luchian, and Theodor Pallady, together with some Romanian icons.
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