Calouste Gulbenkian Museum Lisbon: What's Open in 2026 (Reopening July)
The main museum — the Founder's Collection — is closed for renovation until July 2026. The CAM modern art centre (€8) and the gardens stay open while it's rebuilt. What's worth your time now, and what comes back in July.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is the name on every Lisbon guidebook, and right now its main building is a construction site. The Founder's Collection — the galleries holding one of the finest private art collections ever assembled — closed in March 2025 for a deep renovation and reopens in July 2026, timed to the Gulbenkian Foundation's 70th anniversary.
That doesn't mean a wasted trip. The modern wing is fully open with its own collection, and the gardens are some of the best in the city — just go knowing the famous Founder's Collection is away until July.
In 3 minutes
- The main museum (Founder's Collection) is closed; it reopens July 2026
- The CAM modern art centre stays open — €8, Wednesday to Monday
- The Founder's Collection masterpieces are in storage until the July 2026 reopening
What's open and what's closed in 2026
Here's the honest map of the campus while the renovation runs.
Closed — the Founder's Collection. The famous galleries, from Ancient Egypt to French Impressionism, are shut until July 2026. The work upgrades climate control, lighting, and security so the collection survives another century, and harmonises the architecture along the way.
Open — the CAM (Centro de Arte Moderna). The Foundation's modern art museum, reopened in 2024 after a €58M redevelopment by Kengo Kuma, runs throughout. It holds 20th-century Portuguese and international art (Paula Rego, Vieira da Silva, Almada Negreiros) plus rotating exhibitions. Tickets are €8.
Open — the gardens. The 7.5-hectare park around the museum is free and one of the calmest green spaces in Lisbon. Worth an hour on its own, renovation or not.
On show at the CAM — the modern collection. While the Founder's galleries are closed, the CAM runs its own programme: Scheherazade, the Never-ending Collection of CAM draws on its modern and contemporary holdings (on through 2027), alongside rotating shows like Rosa Barba's Drawing Vocabularies (to 28 September 2026). This is the CAM's collection, not Gulbenkian's Founder's Collection — those masterpieces return in July.
Where to book
Our take: While the main museum is closed, book the CAM direct — it's €8 and rarely busy — and pair it with an hour in the gardens. If the Founder's Collection (the Rembrandts and the Lalique room) is what you came for, it's worth waiting for the July 2026 reopening rather than making a special trip now.
Gulbenkian opening hours and tickets
The CAM is open Wednesday to Monday, 10:00–18:00, closed Tuesday, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. Adult tickets are €8. The gardens are open daily and free.
When the Founder's Collection reopens in July 2026, expect it to return to its pre-closure pattern: 10:00–18:00, closed Tuesday, with a combined ticket around €10 and free entry on Sundays after 2pm. The museum hasn't confirmed reopening prices, so treat those figures as a guide. Check gulbenkian.pt before you go — the renovation has moved things around, and reopening details firm up closer to summer.
How to get to the Gulbenkian
The entrance is at Avenida de Berna 45A, near Praça de Espanha, about 15 minutes north of the centre and set inside the museum's own garden.
Take the metro to São Sebastião (blue and red lines) or Praça de Espanha (blue line), each a short walk. Buses 716, 726, 742, 746, and 756 stop nearby, and Entrecampos train station is a 15-minute walk. The hop-on-hop-off city tour lines also stop at the Foundation.
What the Founder's Collection holds
This is why the July reopening matters. Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian — an Armenian oil magnate with an extraordinary eye — left more than 6,000 works spanning Antiquity to the early 20th century, displayed exactly as he wanted.
The René Lalique room. Around 145 pieces of Art Nouveau jewellery and glass, made for Gulbenkian by Lalique himself. Dragonfly women, enamel and opal, objects that look grown rather than made. There's nothing else like it in a public collection.
Ancient and Islamic art. Egyptian sculpture, Greco-Roman coins and glass, then one of the great holdings of Islamic art — Iznik ceramics, Persian carpets, illuminated Armenian manuscripts.
European painting. Rembrandt, Rubens, Frans Hals, Ghirlandaio, then Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Turner. Small in number, ruthless in quality — Gulbenkian bought few pictures and only the best.
French 18th-century decorative arts. Furniture, silver, and Houdon's marble Diana, from the collection's strand of pre-Revolution French craftsmanship.
For the full ranking of what's worth your time in the city right now, see our best art museums in Lisbon guide — it covers where the Gulbenkian sits while it's closed and which museums to lead with instead.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum open in 2026?
The main Founder's Collection is closed and reopens in July 2026, for the Foundation's 70th anniversary. The CAM modern art centre (€8, Wed–Mon) and the gardens stay open in the meantime. The Founder's Collection masterpieces are in storage during the rebuild — the Great Works exhibition that showed them ended in September 2025.
How much are Calouste Gulbenkian Museum tickets in 2026?
The CAM is €8 for adults now. The Founder's Collection ran a combined ticket near €10 before closing; reopening prices aren't confirmed yet. Gardens are free, and entry has traditionally been free on Sundays after 2pm.
What are the Gulbenkian opening hours?
CAM: Wednesday to Monday, 10:00–18:00, closed Tuesday. The Founder's Collection is expected to follow the same hours from July 2026. Gardens open daily. Check gulbenkian.pt before a special trip.
How do you get to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum?
Metro São Sebastião or Praça de Espanha, then a short walk to Avenida de Berna 45A. Buses 716, 726, 742, 746, and 756 stop nearby.
Closed for now, but not for long — the CAM and gardens carry the campus while the Founder's Collection is rebuilt, and the main museum returns in July 2026. Until then, see the best art museums in Lisbon for where to spend your time, or the Oceanário de Lisboa if you're travelling with kids.
Last verified: June 2026