Founded in 1872, the Museum of Applied Arts is one of the oldest museums of art and design on the continent. The palace housing the museum was built in 1896, and is one of the most beautiful Art Nouveau buildings of the Hungarian capital. The core of the collection is made up by masterpieces of European decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the present day. Highlights from the collection can be seen in the permanent exhibition of the museum, as well as in the Nagytétény Castle Museum. The museum also regularly organizes temporary exhibitions of both historic and contemporary material. The Museum published annually the yearbook Ars Decorativa, as well as exhibition guides, catalogues and monographs regularly.
The Museum of Applied Arts houses outstanding historical pieces of European and Hungarian applied arts. The collections exceeding 70 thousand items of works of art and about 65 thousand items of graphical works and documents, held in the Archives of the Museum. In addition, a large library of historic and current volumes rounds out the collections of the Museum. Collection of historic and contemporary works of art and design continue to this day.
One of the largest collections of the Museum consists of faience, porcelain and glass object, as well as stove-tiles and other works of ceramics, numbering about 23.000 entries. Even by international standards, the glass collection of the Museum of Applied Arts is among the finest, remarkable not only in quality, but also in quantity and variety. A special highlight of this collection is that of Art Nouveau glass objects, including approximately 240 objects.
Conscious efforts to build the collection were begun in the late nineteenth century. Purchases made by the director of the museum, Jenő Radisics, at the two Parisian World’s Fairs of 1889 and 1900 and from material on display in the 1898 exhibit, Modern Art, organized by Radisics himself, formed the basis of the collection. The majority of the glass pieces, whether single works or mass produced in smaller or larger series, were created as works of art, bearing their own unique message. Many other glass objects were donated to the Museum by Dr. Ottó Fettick (1875-1954), university professor, bacteriologist and veterinarian. Fettick collected various kinds of objects, and his collection of over five-thousand pieces contained glass, ceramics and porcelain, lace, oriental carpets, and far-eastern objects. His collecting activity focused on outstanding pieces of contemporary decorative arts. Other significant pieces came from the collection of Vince Wartha (1844-1914), professor at the Technical University, while many others were purchased individually during the last few decades.