Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Odessa (must see)

The Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art was established in 1923 and occupies a palace-style building constructed between 1856 and 1858 under the direction of the architect L. Otton. The museum is situated in the city of Odessa, Ukraine, and brings together a collection drawn from former private holdings, as well as material from the city’s fine-arts repository and the University of Odessa.

Visitors will find within its walls a broad-ranging collection of European art. Old-master works by artists such as Frans Hals, Peter Paul Rubens, and Jan van Scorel appear among the holdings. In particular, two paintings by Frans Hals — representations of the evangelists Luke and Matthew — were rediscovered in the museum’s storerooms after having been lost since the 17th century.

Equally compelling is the museum’s Eastern art section. The collection includes works of fine silk painting, porcelain pieces, embroidered textiles, ancient weaponry, and figurative statuettes dating from the 16th- to 17th-century traditions of China, Japan, India, Iran, and Tibet. Thus, the museum offers a blend of Western and Eastern artistic traditions, juxtaposed under one roof.

When planning a visit, it may be helpful to remember that although the museum holds around 10,000 items in its entire collection, not every piece is on display at any given time. The building itself, originally a 19th-century palace, adds architectural interest as you move from room to room. The experience provides a chance to behold artworks of significant historical provenance while reflecting on the layered cultural story of this Black Sea-port city.