Museum Le Mayeur — Attraction in Denpasar Selatan

For starters, the 100k per foreigner (adult) entry fee is already quite a bit. For example, the Geopark Batur Museum in Kintamani is free and has A LOT more to show for it.

Upon entering, you will immediately be impressed by the variety in paint mediums, the architecture of the house & the beauty of the paintings.

However, all of the appeal fades to black once you read the story of Le Mayeur. The old tale of a westerner arriving to Bali in the 1930s, seeing young (then 15 year old) Ni Pollok, the dancer, and being mesmerised by her beauty, asks if he can paint her.

Over time the two develop a relationship, Le Mayeur ends up staying in Bali longer than he anticipated. Eventually, Le Mayeur marries Ni Pollok and they create this house (now museum) together, which later becomes property of the government after his passing.

Here's the dark part: Le Mayeur was a 50-something year old when he met the 15 year old Ni Pollok... Yep! 😳

It gets worse, the quality of the paintings is deteriorating rapidly, most look 100s of years old despite not aging a century. This is due to the lack of care given to the property and the items within. Many of the paintings are hard to appreciate due to the very old, stained & unclean glass getting in the way of everything.

Would not come here again, waste of...

Stunning garden and enjoyable areas to sit and imagine how it was in the past during Le Mayeur and Ni Pollok's days. Unfortunately, the collection is not as well maintained as the garden is. Even the replicas looked neglected. I got the chance to see Le Mayeur's well preserved original work in another museum in Bali, hence the ones presented here are pale comparison. The challenge of running a museum by the beach, weathered the tropical humidity, with limited budget.

Still, I enjoyed looking at the architecture and the furniture. Heartbroken seeing a large tree being chopped down for the root disrupted the concrete path outside. We agreed that the tree must be older that this museum.

Exploring the areas and wishing there are more stories presented here to elaborate the art, the lives, and how the museum survive to what it is now.

We spent about half an hour sitting in the verandah and chatting with another tourists who mused about his previous visit to this establishment some two decades ago and meeting a painter who was able to copy Le Mayeur's art to the details.

None of that exists now. I didn't even notice any shops or merchandise on diplay. Yet, I am sure they are...

(+) I personally love all of Le Mayeur work; some are reproductions, while the original ones are kept in the new building right next to the house. The house itself is beautiful with exquisite carvings. Lovely garden and pond, too.

(-) The house, furniture and painting collection needs immediate restoration. Perhaps a collaboration of professionals from Indonesia and. Belgium. I see termites everywhere. The lighting needs adjustment since it reflects on the glasses that protect the paintings, making it hard to enjoy the paintings. Some windows need to be blocked, the direct sunlight is damaging the paintings.

They recently increased the entry ticket price. Rp.30.000 for Indonesian nationals/adults and Rp.100.000...