Danish museum to reopen

Copenhagen’s famed Glyptotek -- best known for its Impressionist paintings, antique sculptures, an Etruscan collection and Danish art -- will reopen next week after three years of renovation.

The downtown museum with its trademark Venetian renaissance front was built in 1897 by Carl Jacobsen, son of the Carlsberg brewery founder, to display his personal art collections.

Glyptotek still exhibits Jacobsen’s collections, including masterpieces by Impressionists Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and Pierre Renoir; paintings by Post-Impressionists Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh and Pierre Bonnard, as well as sculptures by Auguste Rodin that are considered the Frenchman’s most important collection outside France.

Two Carlsberg foundations for arts and sciences donated $16.8 million for the renovation. Half the money was spent expanding the basement under the entrance hall to create a new public foyer with a ticket sales office, cloakrooms and bathrooms. The remainder was used for a fresh coat of paint, glass showcases and lighting, as well as new signs next to the artifacts in Danish and English.