The 1907 extension to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum heralded what is seen as the introduction of the modern museum in Turkey. The project was directed by Osman Hamdi, who by the time he died three years later had laid the foundations for the development of the country's museums during the 20th century.
A hundred years on, it is an exciting time for Istanbul's museums once again. Despite long-standing problems with funding and staffing, the sector has been buoyed by recent investment from private companies and individuals and a flourishing of creativity from the city's artists. Visitor numbers are being boosted by Istanbul's status as a major tourist destination, with people flocking to take in the excitement of a city that has seen its population shoot up from 2 million in the mid-1960s to about 12 million today.
The Turkish museum sector is also starting to work more closely with counterparts overseas, both in exchanging exhibitions and objects, but also expertise and skills.
One of the most significant developments was the 2004 opening of Istanbul Modern, the city's first major modern art gallery. The 8,000 sq metre building on the banks of the Bosphorous is housed in a former warehouse and employs about 50 staff. The museum is part of a burgeoning art scene in a city that now has about 300 private galleries.
Istanbul Modern recently appointed a new director, David Elliott, who joined the museum in January from the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Elliott, who was the director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford from 1976 to 1996, is excited by the art scene in Turkey.
'I was really impressed by the ambition and what is being done here,' Elliott says. 'It is full of potential and there is everything to play for. There is incredible dynamism and an incredible sense of energy among contemporary artists here, but also in the wider region. Things are really beginning to open up.'
Banu Cennetoglu is an Istanbul-based artist whose work has been shown all over the world. She says that although the contemporary art scene in the city is relatively small and public support is limited, it is an exciting one.
It is a good environment for artists, 'not in terms of money or support, but in terms of energy and inspiration,' Cennetoglu says. 'If you need a challenge as an artist, then it is good.'
There is no state money for contemporary art in Turkey, but private individuals and companies are supportive. Garanti Bank is one of a number of financial institutions that backs the arts.
The bank, which is the third largest in Turkey, funds a range of projects, including the Platform contemporary art centre, which opened in 2001 and features a gallery, archive, and research and lecture spaces. Garanti also has its own museum, the Ottoman Bank Museum, which opened in 2002.
Private support also played a central role in the development of a major event in Turkey's art scene - the International Istanbul Biennial.
The tenth biennial takes place this year, from 8 September to 4 November, and is being curated by Hou Hanru, an art critic and curator based in San Francisco and Paris. The event was founded in 1987 by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, an organisation set up by the Eczacibasi family, who are also the founders and benefactors of the Istanbul Modern.
The Eczacibasis are one of three families who dominate Turkish industry and provide major support for the arts and museum sectors - the other two are the Koç and Sabanci families.
Through a foundation it set up in 1969, the Koç family opened Turkey's first private museum in 1980. The Sadberk Hanim Museum is in north Istanbul and features the family's art and archaeology collections.
The foundation opened a second museum in 2000 - the Kaleiçi Museum in the southern city Antalya, which has a collection of artefacts related to Turkish culture. A separate Koç foundation has two museums, in Istanbul and Ankara, about transport, industry and communications.
The Sabanci family's museum opened in 2002 and is part of Istanbul's Sabanci University. It displays the family's permanent collection of manuscripts and 19th- and 20th-century paintings, while the temporary exhibition space has bought Rodin and Picasso shows to Istanbul.
As well as the direct financing of the development of new museums by conglomerates, museums are also benefiting from a recent growth in sponsorship. Istanbul Modern's recent Venice-Istanbul show attracted support from Türk Telecom, the recently privatised Turkish telecommunications company, while Garanti Bank is sponsoring Genghis Khan and His Heirs: the Great Mongol Empire, which is at Istanbul's Sabanci Museum until April.
While the private museums in Istanbul are generally well-supported, government-owned museums are less fortunate, despite their fantastic collections.
Museums such as the Topkapi Palace, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and the Istanbul Archaeology Museum certainly have an impressive range of artefacts, but all have the air of institutions that could do with more funding. This lack of funding is a problem across all of Turkey's museums, not just Istanbul.
'Museums are not well-funded in Turkey in general and they are also understaffed,' says Tomur Atagök, who founded a museum studies masters programme at Istanbul's Yildiz Technical University in 1989.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism operates about 200 museums, while also controlling nearly 100 more that are owned and managed by private individuals and foundations and other state institutions and municipalities.
Atagök says there are a number of things that would help improve state-funded museums in Turkey, including basics such as each museum having a collections policy and the creation of common standards for display and storage. But she says the area that needs most work is the training of museum staff.
'If you have professionals aware of changes in museology, the development on the ground will follow,' Atagök says.
Atagök says more museum studies programmes and regular training are needed, salaries should be improved and staff need to be able to progress in their careers. Museums also need to employ more specialist staff to work on areas such as exhibition design, conservation, and public relations.
Many of the well-qualified staff in Turkish museums have gained experience abroad. Partnerships with overseas museums are part of a wider opening up of Turkish society to the outside world, shown most obviously by the move to become part of the EU.
But events such as the murder in January in Istanbul of the journalist Hrant Dink after his statements about the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th-century are reminders of the divisions that still exist in Turkey.
A more positive view of Istanbul should be on display in 2010 when the city becomes the European Capital of Culture. A number of new museums are planned to open that year including the Museum of Istanbul.
The History Foundation of Turkey has been working on this social history museum since the early 1990s, but after a number of setbacks, the momentum created by the capital of culture year should help it happen. There are also plans to create a natural history museum, develop cultural centres at Silahtaraga Power Station and Hasanpase Gasworks, and to reorganise the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
Istanbul's status as the European Capital of Culture should also help raise awareness of the city's museums among local residents as well as tourists.
'There is not a strong tradition of Turkish people visiting museums and one of the main reasons for this is museums' attitude that these institutions are for specialists, not for the public,' says Atagök. 'People of moderate income do not consider visiting museums, while museum staff do not have a welcoming attitude.'
But museum visits are now on the curriculum for schools, and the museum studies department at Yildiz Technical University is working with the Istanbul Archaeology Museum and a number of volunteers groups to create a model education programme for other museums.
'We look forward to the day when state museums and major museums such as Topkapi will be as attractive to the Turkish public as they are to tourists,' Atagök concludes.
A hundred years on, it is an exciting time for Istanbul's museums once again. Despite long-standing problems with funding and staffing, the sector has been buoyed by recent investment from private companies and individuals and a flourishing of creativity from the city's artists. Visitor numbers are being boosted by Istanbul's status as a major tourist destination, with people flocking to take in the excitement of a city that has seen its population shoot up from 2 million in the mid-1960s to about 12 million today.
The Turkish museum sector is also starting to work more closely with counterparts overseas, both in exchanging exhibitions and objects, but also expertise and skills.
One of the most significant developments was the 2004 opening of Istanbul Modern, the city's first major modern art gallery. The 8,000 sq metre building on the banks of the Bosphorous is housed in a former warehouse and employs about 50 staff. The museum is part of a burgeoning art scene in a city that now has about 300 private galleries.
Istanbul Modern recently appointed a new director, David Elliott, who joined the museum in January from the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. Elliott, who was the director of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford from 1976 to 1996, is excited by the art scene in Turkey.
'I was really impressed by the ambition and what is being done here,' Elliott says. 'It is full of potential and there is everything to play for. There is incredible dynamism and an incredible sense of energy among contemporary artists here, but also in the wider region. Things are really beginning to open up.'
Banu Cennetoglu is an Istanbul-based artist whose work has been shown all over the world. She says that although the contemporary art scene in the city is relatively small and public support is limited, it is an exciting one.
It is a good environment for artists, 'not in terms of money or support, but in terms of energy and inspiration,' Cennetoglu says. 'If you need a challenge as an artist, then it is good.'
There is no state money for contemporary art in Turkey, but private individuals and companies are supportive. Garanti Bank is one of a number of financial institutions that backs the arts.
The bank, which is the third largest in Turkey, funds a range of projects, including the Platform contemporary art centre, which opened in 2001 and features a gallery, archive, and research and lecture spaces. Garanti also has its own museum, the Ottoman Bank Museum, which opened in 2002.
Private support also played a central role in the development of a major event in Turkey's art scene - the International Istanbul Biennial.
The tenth biennial takes place this year, from 8 September to 4 November, and is being curated by Hou Hanru, an art critic and curator based in San Francisco and Paris. The event was founded in 1987 by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, an organisation set up by the Eczacibasi family, who are also the founders and benefactors of the Istanbul Modern.
The Eczacibasis are one of three families who dominate Turkish industry and provide major support for the arts and museum sectors - the other two are the Koç and Sabanci families.
Through a foundation it set up in 1969, the Koç family opened Turkey's first private museum in 1980. The Sadberk Hanim Museum is in north Istanbul and features the family's art and archaeology collections.
The foundation opened a second museum in 2000 - the Kaleiçi Museum in the southern city Antalya, which has a collection of artefacts related to Turkish culture. A separate Koç foundation has two museums, in Istanbul and Ankara, about transport, industry and communications.
The Sabanci family's museum opened in 2002 and is part of Istanbul's Sabanci University. It displays the family's permanent collection of manuscripts and 19th- and 20th-century paintings, while the temporary exhibition space has bought Rodin and Picasso shows to Istanbul.
As well as the direct financing of the development of new museums by conglomerates, museums are also benefiting from a recent growth in sponsorship. Istanbul Modern's recent Venice-Istanbul show attracted support from Türk Telecom, the recently privatised Turkish telecommunications company, while Garanti Bank is sponsoring Genghis Khan and His Heirs: the Great Mongol Empire, which is at Istanbul's Sabanci Museum until April.
While the private museums in Istanbul are generally well-supported, government-owned museums are less fortunate, despite their fantastic collections.
Museums such as the Topkapi Palace, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts and the Istanbul Archaeology Museum certainly have an impressive range of artefacts, but all have the air of institutions that could do with more funding. This lack of funding is a problem across all of Turkey's museums, not just Istanbul.
'Museums are not well-funded in Turkey in general and they are also understaffed,' says Tomur Atagök, who founded a museum studies masters programme at Istanbul's Yildiz Technical University in 1989.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism operates about 200 museums, while also controlling nearly 100 more that are owned and managed by private individuals and foundations and other state institutions and municipalities.
Atagök says there are a number of things that would help improve state-funded museums in Turkey, including basics such as each museum having a collections policy and the creation of common standards for display and storage. But she says the area that needs most work is the training of museum staff.
'If you have professionals aware of changes in museology, the development on the ground will follow,' Atagök says.
Atagök says more museum studies programmes and regular training are needed, salaries should be improved and staff need to be able to progress in their careers. Museums also need to employ more specialist staff to work on areas such as exhibition design, conservation, and public relations.
Many of the well-qualified staff in Turkish museums have gained experience abroad. Partnerships with overseas museums are part of a wider opening up of Turkish society to the outside world, shown most obviously by the move to become part of the EU.
But events such as the murder in January in Istanbul of the journalist Hrant Dink after his statements about the mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th-century are reminders of the divisions that still exist in Turkey.
A more positive view of Istanbul should be on display in 2010 when the city becomes the European Capital of Culture. A number of new museums are planned to open that year including the Museum of Istanbul.
The History Foundation of Turkey has been working on this social history museum since the early 1990s, but after a number of setbacks, the momentum created by the capital of culture year should help it happen. There are also plans to create a natural history museum, develop cultural centres at Silahtaraga Power Station and Hasanpase Gasworks, and to reorganise the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
Istanbul's status as the European Capital of Culture should also help raise awareness of the city's museums among local residents as well as tourists.
'There is not a strong tradition of Turkish people visiting museums and one of the main reasons for this is museums' attitude that these institutions are for specialists, not for the public,' says Atagök. 'People of moderate income do not consider visiting museums, while museum staff do not have a welcoming attitude.'
But museum visits are now on the curriculum for schools, and the museum studies department at Yildiz Technical University is working with the Istanbul Archaeology Museum and a number of volunteers groups to create a model education programme for other museums.
'We look forward to the day when state museums and major museums such as Topkapi will be as attractive to the Turkish public as they are to tourists,' Atagök concludes.