Mina Minovici Museum, 3 Nicolae Minovici St.
In 1936, Dr Nicolae Minovoci donates to the city of Bucharest his villa in Romanian folk style built in 1905 following the designs of architect Cristofi Cerchez, as well as his entire collection of folk art: costumes from the Suceava, Vlasca and Arges areas, peasant wall carpets from the Olt area, with floral and zoomorphic motives, ceramics from various traditional centres (Horezu, Binis, Fagaras), pieces of furniture and household objects, musical instruments, painted eggs, a collection of peasant icons on wood and glass originating from Transylvania (17th-18th centuries). The "Dr Nicolae Minovici" FolkArt Museum was opened in 1916 as the first museum of national art in Bucharest. The building was constructed in order to house Dr Nicolae Minovici's collection of folk and modern art. Built in the style of a 17th-18th century Wallachian cula (fortified house), the Dr Nicolae Minovici villa still preserves an impressive stone decoration, work of the German sculptor Wilhelm August von Beckev. The museum and its patrimony went, by donation, into the administration of the BucharestCity Hall in 1937. It is currently closed, undergoing a process of restoration and consolidation. Mina Minovici (1857-1933), Romanian forensic physician, professor at the University of Bucharest, father of the Romanian school of forensic medicine and founder of the Forensic Medicine Institute (named after him) and of the Anthropometrical Service in Bucharest. He conducted important research on cadaveric alkaloids, on putrefaction, on feigned mental disorders and criminal anthropology. His most important academic work is Complete Treatise of Forensic Medicine (1928-1930).
by Plural magazine
