Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is located in the center of Copenhagen and the museum collection consists primarily of works of art and archaeological objects from Ancient Egypt, the worlds of Ancient Greece and Rome, Etruscan Culture, as well as Danish and French art of the 19th century.

Art and beer
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek was founded by the brewer, Carl Jacobsen (the founder of Carlsberg breweries), who was one of the great industrial magnates of the 19th century and the greatest art patron Denmark has seen. In 1888 Carl Jacobsen gave his art collection to the public and began the building of Glyptoteket to house it. Glyptoteket has been open to the public since 1897 and holds over 10,000 works primarily divided between ancient antiquities and Danish and French sculpture and painting from the 19th century.

The collection
The collection of ancient sculpture includes an extensive collection of Ancient Greek and Roman portrait heads as well as a large collection of Palmyrene portraits. The modern part of the collection includes French sculpture from the 19th century – featuring a significant selection of works by Auguste Rodin – and French painting from 1800 to 1950, with Impressionism and Paul Gauguin as the absolute stars, plus a collection of Danish Golden Age Art. The greater proportion of the collection forms part of the museum’s permanent exhibitions, though there are, also, temporary special exhibitions which help to develop a perspective on the museum’s collection with the aid of works on loan.

The Winter Garden, café and roof terrace
Unwind from the daily grind at the café overlooking the beautiful and spacious Winter Garden. Picnic is open on the same days as the museum itself. We serve tasty light lunches, desserts, coffee and other beverages.

Visit the roof terrace of the Glyptotek and experience a beautiful view of Copenhagen and the city towers. Every summer, the museum café serves cold drinks, snacks, coffee and cake for you to enjoy in open air.

Special Exhibithions: 

After nature, 12.10.2023 - 18.08.2024

In After Nature – A New Reading of the Glyptotek’s Paintings by Writer Josefine Klougart, Josefine Klougart uses the prism of art to study the relationship of humans with nature in a kind of 3-D essay, in which the author’s texts interacts with the Glyptotek’s landscape paintings.

Nature as we knew it no longer exists. Klougart explores its beauty, and its disappearance from our modern reality. The sensuous design of the exhibition is the work of the set designer duo Vang Stensgaard. (Glyptoteket.dk)

Gilded Mummy Masks, 20/04/24-06/10/24

To ensure a successful afterlife in ancient Egypt, it was important to preserve the identity of the deceased by including a portrayal in the grave.

Glyptoteket has a variety of such portrayals in the form of mummy masks, which were used to cover the face of the deceased. The museum has a collection of such gilded mummy masks from the Roman period in Egypt, from the 1st to the 3rd century CE.

Previously, there was very little knowledge about these gilded mummy masks. Therefore, the masks have recently been thoroughly investigated by the museum’s Polychromy Research Group. The scientific analyses tell us what kind of materials and techniques the Egyptians used to make the masks, and how they were used.

The largest of the masks, depicting a woman, were made by using textile, plaster, gilding, plant gum, animal glue, pigments (red and yellow ochre, carbon black, Egyptian blue, copper green, organic red), as well as plant fibres for the wig.