The art collections of national museums in Portugal

Abstract

This article focuses on the analysis of the constitution of the art collections of the Portuguese national museums in the nineteenth century and the changes that opened the doors of these institutions to the contemporary. Assigned a special focus on the transformation that takes place at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Lisbon (between 1945 and 1959) and the National Museum Soares dos Reis in Porto (between 1950 and 1960), respectively under the direction of modernist sculptors Diogo de Macedo and Salvador Barata Feyo, that engage a modern museum management policy.