International relations

The aim of the international cooperation of the National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is to promote the cultural heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and to collect material about the Lithuanistic treasures that are kept in museums of various countries.

The National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is seeking to become a subject of cultural diplomacy, therefore its collaboration is carried out in several directions:

1. developing connections with those culture and museum institutions that directly foster the heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania;
2. establishing and maintaining mutual relationships with the museums that work within the historic space of the Gediminas-Jagiellonian and Vasa dynasties; that are presenting and promoting the cultural heritage related to the environment of these rulers;
3. developing international cooperation with those rulers and noblemen residences in Poland, Italy and other European and world countries which had diplomatic, political or cultural ties with our country during the prosperity period of the residence of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (15th century – mid 17th century);
4. establishing contacts with those foreign historic residence museums that are typologically akin to the National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in order to share the practical experience of museulogy;
5. expanding cooperation with the foreign museums, libraries and cultural institutions, in whose collections there are Lithuanian national treasures that were taken out from Lithuania in the past or became property of  foreign countries in other ways.

The National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania has been successfully integrating into the international networks of cultural heritage institutions. Professional ties have been established with more than 100 European historic rulers and noblemen residences, museums and other institutions that foster historic and cultural heritage. On the basis of international contracts, in Lithuania a database on Lithuanistic treasures kept in various world museums is being collected. The database helps the visitors to get acquainted with these treasures. Visual and textual information about approximately 1000 values has already been collected. It is being used for exhibitions and the production of publications.

International cooperation agreements have been signed with the following institutions:

1. The Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków – The National Art Collection (Poland);
2. The Royal Castle in Warsaw – A Monument of Polish History and Culture (Poland);
3. Grodno Castle cultural organization – Grodno State Museum of History and Archaeology (Belarus);
4. Belarus state institution – National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Nyasvizh";
5. The Estense Castle Museum in Ferrara (Italy);
6. Dresden State Art Collections – Dresden Residential Castle (Germany);
7. Sicilian Regional Assembly located in Norman Palace in Palermo (Italy).

The National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the Association of Castles and Museums around the Baltic Sea.

While the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania undergoes remedial reconstruction, its exhibitions and events are organized in the Museum of Applied Art, Vilnius Picture Gallery and other cultural spaces of Lithuania. Working closely with its colleagues in Lithuania as well as many foreign partners, the National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania has organized the following exhibitions:

• “Lithuania in Ancient Historical Sources”;
• “Wawel in Vilnius. From the Jagiellonians to the End of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth”;
• “The Union of Lublin and its Epoch in Works of Jan Matejko”;
• “How this happened in the Great Battle… Exposé of Grunwald”;
• “Crosses – a Sign of Virtue, an Arrow – a Sign of Victory… The Sapiegos as Statesmen, Patrons and Collectors of Art”.
• “Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and its reconstruction" (Minsk)
• International Exhibition „Portraits of the Rulers and Magnates of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from Museums in Ukraine“

Together with its foreign partners, the National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is implementing joint scientific-research projects, exchanging exhibitions as well as exhibits, relevant museum information, iconography, photographs, experts and experience. The institutions are also consulting one another on such issues as reconstruction of residences, installments of exhibitions, restoration of museum treasures and the development of tourism information programs.  

The National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is also an active participant of a number of exhibitions organized by its partners in foreign countries:

• In 2006–2007, the exhibition "The Past Opens up to the Future: The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius" visited the museums of five towns in Poland.
• In 1997, the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania hearth was exhibited in Germany.
• In the summer of 2010, the unique history of the reconstruction of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania was presented in the exhibition “History of Reconstruction / Construction of History” (“Geschichte der Rekonstruktion – Konstruktion der Geschichte“) at the Architecture Museum of the Munich University of Technology in Germany.

The National Museum the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania is developing connections with the historic museums and residences of the rulers and noblemen of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania located in Belarus and Ukraine as well as the cultural institutions of Sweden, Hungary and other countries in Central Europe.

It is hoped that the fostering of connections with the historic regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania will add knowledge to the history of the country’s sovereignty, diplomacy and culture. It is also expected that this will contribute to the knowledge about the whole Europe’s historic, cultural and artistic heritage, its historical memory, identity, citizenship education, the common Christian European understanding of the Latin civilization and the knowledge about the multiconfessionalism as well as the multiculturalism of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as the cultural heritage of the periphery between the Eastern and the Western civilizations.