How is Pergamon Museum compared to these others ?
 

I know this is the best museum in Berlin but due to limited time, I may or may not be visiting her. I wish to hear some opinions to decide:

a) How is it compared to Lourve, D'Orsey, Pompidou, Galleria Borghese, Ulffizi, Vatican, British Museum, Tate Moden, El Prado & Sofia ?

b) How much mininum time is required to visit Pergamon just for the highlights ?

c) Will you consider her among Europe's top 10, 15, 20 or 25 ?

Thanks.

a) The Pergamon Museum is different - it has no paintings. It focusses on the ancient world and has exhibits which can be seen nowwhere else, including
- the Ishtar Gate and Procession Street of the City of Babylon - absolutely impressive and there is nothing comparable in any other museum,
- the Pergamon Altar - a huge, full-size temple building,
- a four-storey facade of the gate to the ancient city Milet,
- the facade of an Arabian Palace fromt the 8th century.
With these exhibits, it is even better than the Louvre and the British Museum.

b) If you are running through, you will be able to see the most important exhibits in 30 minutes. If you want to concentrate on the smaller artificats and read some explanations: the more time the better. Two hours would be perfect. But one hour would do the museum justice.

c) Europe's top 3, in the same league as the Louvre and the British Museum.

Everything else that you mentioned (Orsay etc.) is in a lower league. What I mean is: yes, the Uffizi or the Prado are gorgeous museums, but you can see similar paintings in 100 other museums in Europe and even in some North American museums. But a huge architectural structure from Babylon can be seen nowhere else.

amazing.. do not miss it.. even for an hour. I agree it is one of the TOP museums in Europe. And unique. I believe it is free one evening,... perhaps Thursdays.

I agree that it's a not-to-miss due to the uniqueness.

It's a wonderful museum - even if time is tight you shouldn't miss is if you have an interest in the ancient world.

Ok thanks, I will go for it even for an hour, too bad not on a thursday :-)

It is brilliant. We spent hours and had trouble pulling ourselves away--but that depends on your interests.

It is more like British Museum than Prado...
If your interest is places like Tate Modern, Sofia and D'Orsey (my case)...just see the 'highlights" mentioned by
other posters.

Echnaton nailed it.

You simply won't see anything like what the Pergamon has anywhere in Europe, and few places in the world.

Renaissance and Impressionist paintings - meh - they're everywhere. Some places have more than others and perhaps what one might consider a critical mass, but Ishtar's Gate? The Pergamon Altar? One of a kind stuff.

Of course, if the ancient world does not interest you, you will think it is a bunch of carved stones and tile.

If you want to see European Old Masters like Vermeer, you should head to the Gemaldegalerie near the Potsdamer Platz. (Vermeer's Woman with a Pearl Necklace will take your breath away.)

The Pergamon Museum is thrilling. Don't miss it.

>Everything else that you mentioned (Orsay etc.) is in a lower league. What I mean is: yes, the Uffizi or the Prado are gorgeous museums, but you can see similar paintings in 100 other museums in Europe and even in some North American museums. But a huge architectural structure from Babylon can be seen nowhere else<

That is an extremely specious statement.

People who know nothing about art shouldn't write about it as if they do.

Thin

Thin

If you "knew anything about art" you would know that an individual's response is subjective so a statement such as;

"(insert opinion here)...will take your breath away" is arrogant, if not also specious.

So, your opinion carries weight but the opinions of others don't because they don't know as much as you.

Cool.

The Pergamon Museum is brilliant and unlike anything you will see elsewhere. If you love the ancient world it's something not to be missed. If you want traditional paintings etc you might be bored.

I think the Louvre and British are better - the others - not.

again, Tate Modern and the British Museum are hardly similar.
I don't care at all for the ancient world, but did visit
Pergamon to see the highlights.

Let me explain my post above:

1. You can't compare an art museum to an antiquities museum. It is like comparing apples to oranges. The Pergamon Museum is an antiquities museum; the Orsay is an art museum.

2. The art in many of the museums listed above are not the same. The Orsay displays mostly French art of the 19th century. The Uffizi Gallery displays mostly Italian and Flemish art of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Prado displays European art from the 12th to the 19th century. It highlights Spanish artists like Velasquez and Goya. It is specious to tell people that looking at a Hugo van der Goes in the Ufizzi is just like looking at a Bonnard in the Orsay.

3. Most experts would agree that the Prado, Orsay, and Uffizi are three of the greatest art museums in the world. I don't know anyone (and I work for a major American auction house) who would call them "lesser museums." Not by a long shot.

4. Most experts would agree that the Archaeological Museum in Athens is one of the world's greatest antiquities museum, not the Pergamon Museum, yet it isn't even mentioned in the post above. Instead, the Pergamon is stated to be in the "top three of Europe."

5. The poster also fails to mention the Hermitage Museum in his "top three", which I can say with all honesty, since I have been inside, rivals the Louvre and the Vatican Museum. (The Hermitage doesn't get mentioned here because most Fodorites don't travel to Russia.)

There are lots of great museums in Europe. Some display ancient antiquities, some display European paintings by the Old Masters, some display sharks in formaldehyde, some display William Morris wallpaper. It is disingenuous to say one is lesser than the other because you don't happen to like what is displayed.

Let's judge all museums on the quality of their collections.

Thin, amongst the philistines

Thin;

#1 Yes you can.

#2 Thanks for the summary. You like the word specious, don't you?
We can't compare musuem type (see #1) and now we can't compare painters and paintings. So I guess no art can be compared?

#3 Hey, wait! You're comparing!

#4 You like the phrase "most experts", don't you?
More comparing!

#5 Even more comparing! And right after you decry Echnaton for comparing, too!
Opinions cannot be supported by the possessor's own belief in their "honesty", even if that possessor feels they are better than the rest of us for having "been inside" a museum that most others haven't.

"It is disingenuous to say one is lesser than the other because you don't happen to like what is displayed."

Dude! (that's Philistine for "Hey, hypocrite") Your entire post is composed of your comparisons of the relative greatness of museums while you both deny others the right to express their opinions on the same topic and even go so far as to declare that comparisons cannot be made among even the same types of art.

Finally, after laying out the reasons why your comparative selections are superior to those of others you state;

"Let's judge all museums on the quality of their collections." - That must mean "Go ahead and compare but only so long as I agree."

Can we presume you are using the term "philistine" in the non-historical context? If you represent what is knowledgeable and cultured, I am more than happy to be slapping a little philistine down.

Of those listed by the OP, I have only been to Lourve, Galleria Borghese, Uffizi, Vatican and British Museum, the first 4 several times. I find the larger art musuems overwhelming personally and prefer shorter visits to many hours spent at one time.

The Galleria Borghese is one of my favorite museums in Europe and I appreciate the size and controlled access (and lack of crowds) as well as the wonderful sculpture collection.

We totally enjoyed our visit to the Pergamon Museum last year. The Ishtar Gate and Procession Street of the City of Babylon were amazing exhibits and I personally have not seen anything of that magnitude in the confines of a museum before. It was the only museum we visited in Berlin as we were there for only a few days and there was so very much to see but we are headed back this year and plan to revisit Pergamon Museum as well as explore others while there. The Museum pass is a very good deal.

Ah, but is the Pergamon better than a Museum of Natural History (country and continent unimportant)?

Of course, it is apples and oranges and bananas.

If you are into Natural History, see the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. It is smaller than those in New York City, Washington D.C. etc., but it has the largest dinosaur skeleton at all. A diplodocus (which is also on display) is dwarfed by the brachiosaurus. They also have the famous archaeopteryx. The building is nice, too.

http://www.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de

And how dies it compare to the National Air and Space Museum in D.C.?

#
Fra_Diavolo on Mar 26, 10 at 12:09pm

And how dies it compare to the National Air and Space Museum in D.C.?"


and:

Transport Museum in Munich

Torture Museum in Sanillana del Mar

Museum Erotica in Copenhagen