In Bois de Boulogne Park in Paris, the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation (8 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Bois de Boulogne, 75116, Paris, France; phone +33 1 40 69 96 00, www.fondationlouis vuitton.fr/en) opened on Oct. 27.
Designed by architect Frank Gehry and comprising 12 soaring, disjointed glass panels, the 41,441-square-foot museum is the new home of the Louis Vuitton company’s art collection. It will also feature temporary exhibits and artist performances.
The Museo del Violino (Piazza Marconi 5, Cremona; phone + 39 0372 801801, www.museodelviolino.org [in Italian]) opened Sept. 15, 2013, in the Italian city of Cremona, home of the famous luthier Antonio Stradivari.
The galleries show the origins of the violin, violin construction, drawings and violin-making tools. Priceless instruments from Stradivari and other Cremona luthiers are on display. There is as an audio guide in English. Open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tues.-Sun. €10 (near $12.50).
The Museum of the Family Home of John Paul II (Koscielna 7, 34-100 Wadowice, Poland; phone +48 33 823 35 55, www.domjp2.pl/en), located in the house where Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, was born, reopened on April 9, 2014, after four years of renovation, just in time for his canonization on April 27.
Exhibits include personal items from his family and his time as pontiff and the pistol used by Mehmet Ali Ag˘ca in an attempt to assassinate John Paul II in 1981.
In Berlin’s Pergamon Museum (Bodestraße 1-3, 10178 Berlin, Germany; phone +49 30 26 642 4242, www.smb.museum/en/home), the Pergamon Altar, north wing and gallery of Hellenistic art will remain closed for renovations until at least 2020. The south wing of the museum, which includes the Ishtar Gate and the Museum of Islamic Art, is unaffected by the renovations and will remain open.
Open 10-6 Mon.-Wed. and Fri.-Sun. and 10-8 Thurs. €12 ($15).
The original gravesite of English king Richard III (1452-1485) — discovered under a city parking lot on the former grounds of Greyfriars Church in Leicester, England, in 2012 — is now home to the Richard III Visitor Centre (4A St. Martin’s, Leicester, LE1 5DB, U.K.; phone +44 0300 300 0900, www.kriii.com).
The center includes exhibits on its excavation and the methods of proving the grave was that of the infamous king. A replica of his skeleton shows battle wounds.
In Kigali, the Campaign Against Genocide Museum opened on July 4 in Rwanda’s national parliament building (Boulevard de l’Umuganda, Kigali, Rwanda).
The museum comprises three monuments and an interior section of eight rooms housing artifacts and documents from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that resulted in the deaths of up to 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus. (The genocide was finally put to an end when the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kawagame, who is now the president of Rwanda, captured Kigali and helped set up a multiethnic government.)
In 2009, among numerous festivals and exhibits commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the exhibit “Leipzig on the Path to Peaceful Revolution” will be held at the Stasi Museum in Berlin, Jan. 15-Dec. 31. An open-air exhibition will be held May 7-Nov. 9 on Alexanderplatz in Berlin. On Nov. 9, the date the Wall fell, there will be concerts and a street fair near the Brandenburg Gate.
The East Side Gallery, a one-kilometer stretch of the Wall painted by artists from around the world, is on Mühlenstraße on the banks of the Spree.
The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, a 20-minute drive from Copenhagen, Denmark, offers interactive programs, demonstrations and exhibitions, including five original 11th-century Viking ships excavated from Roskilde Fjord. Visitors also can explore Museum Island, which has a boatyard where period vessels are reconstructed.
The museum is open daily year-round, and admission ranges from DKK55 to DKK95 (near $11-$19) per adult, depending on the season. Visit http://vikingeskibsmuseet.dk.
The International Maritime Museum Hamburg (Kaispelcher B, Koreastrasse 1, 20457 Hamburg, Germany; phone +49 [0] 40 300 92 300, fax 300 92 30 13, www.internationales-maritimes-museum.de) opened in June.
A 7-minute walk from the piers, the 9-floor museum covers 3,000 years of maritime history, with ship designs, scale models, uniforms and paintings. Open 10-6 Tues., Wed., Fri., Sat. and Sun. €10 ($15.50).
Noel Coward, Charlie Chaplin and Queen Elizabeth II have stayed there, and its Long Bar saw the birth of the cocktail known as the “Singapore Sling.” It’s the Raffles Hotel (1 Beach Road, Singapore 189673; phone +65 6337 1886, http://singapore.raffles.com), and its rich history is showcased in the Raffles Hotel Museum.