Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida

António de Medeiros e Almeida was born in Lisbon on 18 September 1895. His parents were both originally from the Azores. After attending school in Lisbon, Medeiros e Almeida started taking a course in medicine at the University of Coimbra in 1916. At the age of 26, without having completed the course, he dropped out of university. At this stage there was nothing to indicate the important role that he would play in Portugal in the following years.[1][2]

A keen motoring enthusiast, who took part in races, he persuaded William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield who had founded Morris Motors in the United Kingdom to give him the concession to import Morris cars into Portugal. His powers of persuasion were considerable in that he got Morris to agree to supply the first consignment on credit. In addition to an outlet in Lisbon he had sales premises and repair shops in Porto, Coimbra and Viseu. Later, he became President in Portugal of the French car company, Citroën, which still manufactures in Portugal at the PSA Mangualde Plant.[1][2]

He was also a pioneer in commercial aviation, acquiring a significant share in Aero Portuguesa, Portugal’s first airline, in 1948. He went on to become a founder and President of TAP Air Portugal and chairman of IATA, the International Air Transport Association. Not neglecting his roots in the Azores he became a partner in Bensaude & C.ª, Ltda, an important company in the Archipelago whose activities included shipping, fishing, shipyards, insurance, and agricultural products.[1][2]

Medeiros e Almeida played several important roles in World War II. He assisted Jewish refugees in Lisbon by using his connections to obtain passports for them and then giving them passage on cargo ships of his company, the Companhia Insular de Navegação. He was approached by Sir Ronald Campbell, the British ambassador, to facilitate negotiations between Winston Churchill and the Portuguese leader António Salazar on the establishment of a military base for allied forces in the Azores. After Salazar refused on the grounds that Portugal was neutral, he helped the Allies make use of facilities on the Azores during the War, being made a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by the British in 1947. In 1959, he joined with eleven other investors to fund the construction of the Hotel Ritz in Lisbon after Salazar decided that Lisbon lacked a suitable hotel for distinguished foreign visitors.[1][2]

On the 23 June 1924, Medeiros e Almeida married Margarida Pinto Basto. They moved into a house on Rua Mouzinho da Silveira in Lisbon and started to buy artworks to decorate their new residence. Their collection expanded rapidly after World War II as the post-war period provided a particularly good opportunity for collectors with money to enhance their collections as prices were low. The couple quickly became recognised as major art collectors.[1][2]

His wife died in 1971. The couple were childless, which is why they had decided to donate their property and collection to a foundation, the Medeiros e Almeida Foundation, which runs the museum. The idea of the House—Museum was to keep all of the collection together. In 1971 Medeiros e Almeida requested experts from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to carry out a first inventory of his collection. A final inventory would not be completed until after his death. Medeiros e Almeida directed the work of the Foundation until his death on 12 February 1986. Aware that, in the absence of financial resources, the museum would find it difficult to survive without selling some of the contents, Medeiros e Almeida left in his will instructions as to how the Foundation would survive. He arranged for his shares in all of his companies to be sold, with the resulting money being used to build a property close to the museum that should be rented out, with the rent being used to support the functioning of the Museum. That arrangement continues to work satisfactorily to the present.[1][2]

The building that houses the museum was built by a Lisbon lawyer, Augusto Vítor dos Santos, in 1896. In 1921, it was sold to Eduardo Guedes de Sousa who added the two upper floors. In 1927 it was sold to the Vatican to become the Apostolic Nunciature. Medeiros e Almeida and his wife purchased it in 1943, moving into it after extensive remodelling. At the beginning of the 1970s, when he had already been decided to leave the art collection to the Portuguese State, he used the garden to build a new wing to house part of that collection. This included a chapel to exhibit sacred art, a Louis XV Room (Piano Room) and a Louis XIV Room, as well as a winter garden to display glazed tiles and sculpture. Environments suitable for the items in the collection were created, using panelling and ceilings purchased for the purpose. Meanwhile, the couple moved next door to a house on Rua Rosa Araújo.[2][3]

Exhibition room at the Casa-Museu Medeiros e Almeida

The Casa-Museu opened to the public on June 1, 2001. The collection is presented in 25 rooms. It consists mainly of European paintings, religious art, furniture, tapestry, glass and jewelry from the 17th to 20th centuries. Particularly important collections are those of about 225 watches and clocks from the 16th century; Chinese porcelain from prehistoric terracotta to the late 18th century; silverware by the English goldsmith Paul Storr (1792-1838) and a collection of toothpick holders in Portuguese silver; together with porcelain from the Portuguese Vista Alegre factory. The house originally occupied by Medeiros e Almeida has been preserved in its original state. Items on display in the house include a tea service owned by Napoleon. Other items on display include 16th and 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, 19th-century English portraits, and French and Flemish tapestries.[2][4]

Individual items considered of particular interest include a 17th-century night clock illuminated by an oil lamp, by Edward East, that belonged to Queen Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of King Charles II of England; an early 16th-century Chinese Ming porcelain ewer, displaying the coat of arms of Manuel I of Portugal; a pair of 17th-century Imperial Chinese jade sonorous stones; and a 17th-century hourglass made of amber and ivory.[2][4]