故事
The national art museum of Azerbaijan spreads through two ornate 19th-century mansions in the middle of Baku, both raised during the city's first oil boom. The grander of them was built for Lev de Boure, a manager for the Rothschild oil interests, and its carved stucco and sweeping staircases are part of the show.
Inside are more than 17,000 works, moving from Azerbaijani painting and the flat, patterned tradition of local miniatures to Russian and Western European art gathered during the Soviet years. The museum settled into the de Boure mansion in 1951.
The carpets are worth slowing down for, a reminder that in this part of the world weaving was long the leading art of all.
