Part of Viana da Mota’s collection handed over to the National Music Museum
On July 26, the Directorate-General of Cultural Heritage and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation will sign an agreement for the deposit of part of Viana da Mota’s private library and personal objects belonging to the Foundation’s Art Library in the National Music Museum.
Acquired in 1966 from the heiresses of Viana da Mota (1868-1948), a prominent Portuguese pianist, composer, and conductor, the original estate was composed of a set of personal objects, a collection of about 1,500 musical works, his personal library and the furniture and decorative objects from his work room.
From the set of materials that will be deposited in the National Music Museum, some personal objects stand out, among them the baton and several medals and honours awarded to Viana da Mota during his life, the bronze bust commissioned to the artist Teixeira Lopes, from a plaster bust of Francisco Franco, and his personal library, apart from the works specialised in visual arts, which will remain in the Art Library.
This deposit of an important part of the estate of Viana da Mota in the National Music Museum – an institution with one of the richest music instruments collections in Europe, as well as several documental, phonographic, and iconographic collections relevant to the History of Music – seeks, above all, to bring the collection closer to a “patrimonial ecosystem” and to a specialist public more inclined to value and explore the immense historical, documentary and artistic relevance of the legacy.
The Art Library will continue to ensure, through its catalogue available online, the service of research and discovery, by the public, of the complete set of works from Viana Mota’s personal library, redirecting researchers to the services of the National Music Museum, whenever this is the case.
