Lisbon, Sept 28, 2025 (Lusa) - The National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA) in Lisbon is hosting a special programme of activities for children and families on Sunday, the last day of operation, featuring free admission, guided tours, games, and musical moments. before the museum closes for works, The MNAA announced on Monday that it would close to the public from 29 September for works under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), with no exact reopening date, but which the management predicts for the second half of 2026.
After a week of free admission before the closure, today the museum is promoting a special programme called "MNAA Until Now!" which brings together activities for children and families, guided tours of the collections and brief guided walks accompanied by old music.
The proposals for the youngest include a "treasure hunt" inspired by pieces from the museum and the creation of a collective mural that invites visitors to leave ideas about the future of the institution.
The games and workshops planned throughout the day are intended to "bring children closer to the heritage, stimulating creativity and the discovery of works", the museum emphasises in a statement on the closure, released at the beginning of the week.
The programme also includes guided tours led by specialists, focusing on the conservation and restoration of the Panels of São Vicente de Fora, the temporary exhibition of European paintings, and different sections of the permanent collection.
At the same time, there are short visits accompanied by ancient music by the AntiQuorum ensemble, which puts masterpieces of Portuguese and European painting into dialogue with musical repertoires from the same periods.
Among the composers performed are Marin Marais, Pedro do Porto, Bartolomeu Trosilho, and Manuel Correia, in a journey that highlights the links between the visual arts and musical production from the 15th to 17th centuries.
During the PRR works, interventions will be carried out in three areas of the MNAA building: the renovation and requalification of the roof and façades of the building and, on floor 2, dedicated to the collections of goldsmithery, jewellery, ceramics, and the arts of expansion, the museographic equipment will be updated, as well as the respective exhibition discourse.
The work on the MNAA should have begun around a year ago, "which never happened", the museum's new director, Maria de Jesus Monge, told Lusa this week.
The European Art Gallery will have its signage and museography updated and remodelled, while the conservation and restoration campaign for the Albertas Chapel, part of the museum building, continues.
As for the reopening, it too "is conditioned by the timetable of this intervention process" of the plan's works, according to the director, referring to the indicative deadline of 30 June 2026.
During the works, the museum's teams will continue to work, because "the safety and conservation conditions will be met" to continue restoring works, namely the Panels of St Vincent, an iconic work of painting by Nuno Gonçalves dating back more than 500 years, a symbolic collective portrait of Portuguese history and culture at the time.
The panels have been undergoing restoration since 2020, as part of an international project supported by the Millennium BCP Foundation, and Maria de Jesus Monge is confident that they will be completed by the time the museum reopens.
The PRR works at the MNAA will be carried out under the remit of the Lisbon Tourism and Cultural Heritage Association - Public Institute (PC-IP), the organisation responsible for monitoring the physical and financial implementation of the plan in the sector.
At the beginning of the year, the MNAA announced that it would close the European Painting Gallery in March for work under the PRR, while keeping all the other exhibition rooms available to the public, dedicated to decorative arts, cribs, furniture, jewellery, textiles, ceramics and Portuguese painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
Last year, in June, the previous director of the MNAA, Joaquim Caetano, had announced that work on the air conditioning system would begin the following month, followed by work on the façades and roof.
According to the most recent information on the Mais Transparência portal, under the PRR, funding of €6.57 million was allocated for interventions at the MNAA, of which E1.32 million have already been paid, with a completion deadline of 30 June 2026.
Created in 1884, the MNAA currently has a collection of around 40,000 pieces, housing the country's most important public collection of painting, sculpture, decorative arts - Portuguese, European and from the Expansion - from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, including the largest number of works classified as "national treasures", as well as the largest collection of Portuguese furniture.
The collection features some of the world's most significant works of artistic heritage, including the Panels of St. Vincent by Nuno Gonçalves, a masterpiece of 15th-century European painting.
AG/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
