The Conservation Department of the Art Museum of Estonia is celebrating its 50th anniversary with the triple exhibition From Restorer to Conservator. Two of these exhibitions will open on 10 April: the one in the Niguliste Museum will focus on the restoration of mediaeval and contemporary art, and the one in the Kadriorg Art Museum will take a look at the work of conservators of paintings. The third exhibition has been open in the Adamson-Eric Museum since 6 March and focuses on works of art on delicate and fragile paper. 

The Supervisory Board of the Art Museum of Estonia Foundation decided by consensus that Sirje Helme will continue as Chief Executive Officer of the Art Museum of Estonia Foundation for a further two years, in line with the candidate’s preferred contract length.

In 2025, the Art Museum of Estonia’s branches, exhibitions and public programmes were visited by 388,600 art lovers.Over the course of the year, the number of visitors to the Art Museum of Estonia increased significantly. While art lovers visited our museums about 350,000 times each in 2023 and 2024, last year there were 38,600 more visitors.

Please note that all branches of the Art Museum of Estonia will be closed on December 24–26, December 29, and December 31–January 1. You’re very welcome to visit us on December 23, when all branches will be open until 3 p.m. We’ll also be happy to see you again from December 27 to 28 and on December 30, when the museum is open as usual. In the new year, all branches and exhibitions will reopen on Friday, January 2.

Christmas at Niguliste has become an eagerly awaited tradition and marks the beginning of the winter holiday season at the museum. To celebrate the season of Advent, the interior design company Shishi is decorating the museum’s Christmas tree for the ninth time.

Opening in the Niguliste Museum on 22 November, the exhibition Dives Toletana: Treasures of Toledo Cathedral from Medieval to El Greco presents masterpieces from the 10th to the 17th century. For the first time, works by one of Spain’s most remarkable artists, a Greek-born painter El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) (1541–1614), will be shown in Estonia. The curators of the exhibition are Merike Kurisoo and Carlos Alonso Pérez-Fajardo.

The Art Museum of Estonia, which celebrates its 106th anniversary on 17 November, offers art lovers extraordinary experiences at its exhibitions, including masterpieces by such great artists as Lucas Cranach, El Greco, Gerhard Richter, and Flemish and Dutch painters. The entire anniversary-week programme emphasises the museum’s role as an engaging partner for a wide and diverse audience: art speaks to all ages and in all languages.

The performance VIIS et modis premieres on Friday, 14 November as the second part of the dance series Life Dances to Eternity, initiated by the renowned choreographer and director Teet Kask. In the St Anthony chapel the solo dance of Teet Kask combines with the music of the Argentine composer Gustavo Twardy.

Merike Kurisoo, Director of the Niguliste Museum and the Adamson-Eric Museum, was the invited keynote speakers at NORDIK 2025, held in Helsinki from 20–22 October. The event is the largest scholarly forum for art historians in the Nordic countries, organised by NORDIK – The Nordic Association for Art Historians, this year in collaboration with the University of Helsinki.

The Art Museum of Estonia is marking the Song and Dance Celebration week with special guided tours across all five of its branches: Kumu Art Museum, Niguliste Museum, Kadriorg Art Museum, Mikkel Museum, and Adamson-Eric. On July 2–4, each museum will host two special short tours daily: at 1 p.m. in English and at 3 p.m. in Estonian.