Donation from The A.P. Møller Foundation

The A.P. Møller Foundation has donated DKK 9 million to the cleaning and restoration of Thorvaldsens Museum's unique ceilings.

The restoration will take 4 years. Thorvaldsens Museum will be open to the public during normal museum opening hours throughout the period.

4000 square metres of ceilings

The ceiling decorations are the biggest Pompeian-inspired decorative undertaking in Northern Europe and encompass almost 4000 square metres. The original ornamentation was carried out at the same time as the museum was being built between 1839 and 1848, and it extends over all the ceilings in the museum’s ground floor and first floor – altogether more than 40 galleries in addition to corridors and stairways.

The ceilings decorated by the Golden Age painters

The decorations, which are different from gallery to gallery, take as their starting point the ancient ceiling decorations that were found partly in Herculaneum (excavated from 1738) and partly in Pompeii (excavated from 1748) and partly also in ancient buildings in Rome such as Nero’s Domus Aurea. Among the many painters of the Danish Golden Age who took part in the decoration work, Christen Købke is the most famous.

The restoration will take 4 years

The work of restoring, cleaning and stabilising the unique decorated ceilings will extend over some four years, and the entire project will cost almost DKK 13 million. Copenhagen Municipality is expected to accept responsibility for expenses not covered by the grant from the A.P. Møller Foundation.