The TARTLE Lithuanian Art Cognition Centre, located in the Uzupis district, invites visitors to get acquainted with Lithuanian art treasures and historical artefacts, from the cultural legacy of paganism to contemporary art. The aim of the centre is to cherish, collect and return to Lithuania the cultural and historical Lithuanian heritage scattered around the world, and most importantly, to make it accessible to the public. The founders of TARTLE are the Lithuanian Art Foundation and collector Rolandas Valiūnas.
The Centre is unique in that the history of Lithuania can be explored interactively through the prism of art, i.e. by viewing original art exhibits from different periods. The collection features artists from historical Lithuania, regardless of their nationality, because no matter what language they spoke or where in the world they came from, their work is inseparable from Lithuania's historical and cultural context. These include the largest private collection of medals and sculptures by Petras Rimša, a unique collection of folk art, the only collection of maps of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of this size in Lithuania, the extremely rare albums published in Rome by Franciszekas Smuglevičius, almost 2,000 albums of the Lithuanian Museum of History and Culture, and the collection of the Lithuanian Museum of Art. A collection of Lithuanian language books by Kazimieras Vilčinskis and Napoleonas Orda, a complete collection of interwar Lithuanian stamps, silverware by Vilnius craftsmen, including a unique clock by the most famous Vilnius clockmaker of the seventeenth century, Jokūbs Gierke, the largest sculpture by the sculptor Jokūbs Lipšics in Lithuania, the collection of works by interwar Vilnius artists, as well as a number of other valuable exhibits.
