Chinese warriors to come to Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts soon
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In the next six months, Budapest’s Museum of Fine Arts will feature exhibitions on China’s terracotta army and the works of William Blake, while the Hungarian National Gallery will showcase pieces by Adolf Fényes and Lajos Tihanyi.
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Chinese warriors on display in Budapest
László Baán, Director General of the Museum of Fine Arts and its affiliated institutions, outlined the museum’s upcoming highlights during a press briefing on Monday. He emphasised the highly anticipated exhibition Guardians of Eternity – The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China, which opens on 27 November and runs through May.
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“This exhibition, showcasing one of the world’s most spectacular archaeological discoveries, traces the rise of the Qin Empire from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE, featuring key ceremonial artefacts and symbols of the era,” said Baán.
The exhibit will display more than 150 ancient artefacts, including ten original life-sized terracotta soldiers from the first emperor’s clay army, discovered in 1974 by farmers digging a well near the tomb site. Running parallel to this, the Hopp Ferenc Asian Art Museum will host a companion exhibit exploring the Asian Huns, also known as the Xiongnu.
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William Blake, Adolf Fényes, Georg Baselitz
Titled The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, the Museum of Fine Arts will premiere the artwork of William Blake (1757–1827)—also revered as a poet—to Hungarian audiences starting September 26, in collaboration with London’s Tate Museum.
The exhibit, open until January 11, 2026, will also highlight artists who inspired or were contemporary to Blake, including Henry Fuseli, Benjamin West, John Hamilton Mortimer, and J.M.W. Turner, as well as the influence of Blake’s spiritual and visual themes on Hungarian figures such as Antal Szerb and Lőrinc Szabó.
Baán announced that starting mid-October, the museum will present forty contemporary works recently acquired through donations from its Patron Circle. Additionally, from 11 December through 15 March 2026, visitors can see mannerist drawings by Georg Baselitz, one of today’s leading artists.
At the Hungarian National Gallery, a member institution, an exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of Adolf Fényes’ birth will open on 10 October, followed by a comprehensive retrospective of Lajos Tihanyi’s career launching on 20 November.
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The director also noted that the State Audit Office (ÁSZ) flagged seven of the thousands of procurements made by the museum between 2019 and 2024 as allegedly noncompliant with public procurement laws and has submitted the matter to the Public Procurement Arbitration Board.