GMB History
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The gallery was established under a resolution passed by city authorities on 13 December 1958 that created the Heritage Institute of the City of Bratislava. The institute comprised four centres: the Bratislava City Museum, City Gallery, Regional Library, and City Heritage Centre. Between 1959 and 1961, works of art were transferred from City Museum collections to the new City Gallery, and on 1 January 1961 the City Gallery was officially established as an independent municipal cultural and educational institution. The collection’s history, however, dates back to 1868, when the City Museum was founded on the initiative of the Pressburg (Bratislava) Beautification Society.
Private collecting of works of art has a long tradition in Bratislava. At its beginning stood the governor of Hungary, Prince Albert Casimir of Saxony, Duke of Teschen. He accumulated an extensive collection of world graphics at Bratislava Castle, a collection that in 1794 he moved it to Vienna, where it became the basis of the famous Albertina. Several other noblemen are known to have engaged in collecting in Pressburg (Bratislava) in the 18th and 19th centuries, including Ján Pálffy, František Török, Karol Nyáry, and Emil Mirbach, who bequeathed his collection of fine art to the city. Particularly noteworthy among bourgeois collections are those of Hübner, Eder, Lanfranconi, Stampfel, and Scherc. Several works of art from these collections were purchased by, or donated to, the City Museum.
In 1883, the sculptor Viktor Tilgner donated a collection of his works to Pressburg, his hometown, and this provided the impetus for establishment of an Art Gallery within the City Museum. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the museum began to purchase works of art directly from artists of the Bratislava Art Society (Pressburger Kunstverein, Pozsonyi Képzőművészeti Egyesület). Following the Second World War, many confiscated items were added to the collection, and today the City Gallery, now Bratislava City Gallery, continues its acquisition activities.