Mavi Boncuk | The European Museum of the Year Award 2014 goes to the Museum of Innocence,[1] Istanbul, Turkey.
Pamuk attended the European Museum Forum (EMF) meeting on Saturday in the Estonian capital of Tallinn where he received the prestigious prize in the awards ceremony hosted by the Art Museum of Estonia. In accepting the EMYA, the author expressed his grief for the victims of Turkey's biggest mining disaster, saying that he was accepting the prize in memory of the workers who were killed and that his country was in national mourning, according to a Sunday press release from the museum.
The Museum of Innocence can be seen simply as a historical museum of Istanbul life in the second half of 20th century. It is also, however, a museum created by writer Orhan Pamuk as an integral, object-based version of the fictional love story of his novel of the same name. The Museum of Innocence is meant as a small and personal, local and sustainable model for new museum development. The Museum of Innocence inspires and establishes innovative, new paradigms for the museum sector.
This museum fulfils to the highest degree the notion of “public quality”, from the point of view both of heritage and of the public, and taking into account the future, the notion of “public quality”.
Masumiyet Müzesi received Henry Moore's sculpture “The Egg,” the trophy for the award, which will be displayed in the museum for a year. Pamuk's museum beat other nominees for the award, including the Baksı Museum, which won the Council of Europe (COE) Museum Prize for 2014.
The jury mentioned this aspect of the museum as one of the reasons why they selected it as being worthy of the award. “The Museum of Innocence can be seen simply as a historical museum of İstanbul life in the second half of [the] 20th century. It is also, however, a museum created by writer Orhan Pamuk as an integral, object-based version of the fictional love story of his novel of the same name,” says a post on the website of the EMF.
“The Museum of Innocence is meant as a small and personal, local and sustainable model for new museum development. The Museum of Innocence inspires and establishes innovative, new paradigms for the museum sector. This museum fulfils to the highest degree the notion of 'public quality,' from the point of view both of heritage and of the public,” the jury added.