The exhibition is arranged to let visitors view the fabrics and their individual threads at close range. It brings together 50 pieces of world heritage: garments from different parts of the world, dating from the past two centuries. The show opened on September 25 at Romania’s National Museum of Art. No temporary exhibition had been held in the Oriental Art Gallery since its inauguration in autumn 2024.
The selection was made by Dr Florica Zaharia and architect Teodor Frolu. Zaharia is an emerita conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where she worked for 28 years and led the Textile Conservation Department for 13 of them. She is also the founder of the Textile Museum. Frolu is overseeing an expansion project for the museum in Băița, scheduled to open in 2029.
Founded in 2017, the Textile Museum holds more than 14,000 textile objects and tools used in traditional textile production. Romanian textile art accounts for half the collection. The museum describes it as Eastern Europe’s largest collection of comparative textile art and related objects. Its holdings continue to grow through acquisitions and donations.
The largest donation highlighted is the Met’s collection of 1,871 artefacts, mostly costumes representing nearly 100 cultures around the world, including Romanian pieces. The museum also received 274 objects from the estate of Paul J. Smith of New York, Romanian artefacts donated by Rodica Ioana Ghilea, and Japanese, Indian and American artefacts from Midori Sato. The exhibition places part of these international collections alongside Romania’s textile heritage.