National Museum of Ancient Art — Attraction in Lisbon

Just been to your museum. Have to say that the experience was somewhat soured by the horrendous attitude and poor interpersonal skills of your desk staff. On arrival the person selling us tickets did not break a smile. We were a family of 5 and went to drop our bags and coats in the bag drop. The sour expression of he person on this desk matched the girl on the first desk. Without so much as a hello she said there was no room for any coats (despite being able to see at least a dozen empty coat hangers and a completely empty section. We were able to put in our small rucksack and 2 umbrellas. I asked about the empty space and she just repeated ‘no coats. No room.’ After a few minutes I decided to go back and get my bag as it had the children’s drawing books and they wanted to sketch as we went round. When I went to take the bag in I was informed I wasn’t allowed. I asked why given that I had seen plenty of people with rucksacks and shoulder bags as big and bigger than mine - it really is a small bag (slightly bigger than A4 in size). Perhaps these people don’t want families with children in your museum as there were plenty of elderly patrons allowed to bring in their larger bags. Whatever I said made no difference to this staff member and she point blank refused. Given these are the first two people you meet on arriving in your museum I suggest you work on their people skills. It’s a shame, as the other staff, once inside the museum itself seemed...

No stars! Terrible customer service! The card reader was not working so it was cash only. "That's fine" I said, "can you tell me where the nearest ATM machine is?" The woman at the desk - who spoke very good English so understood my question - shrugged. I walked to an ATM (after searching online) and returned with a €20 note, which was "too large" a note as apparently there was no change at the museum, so I couldn't have a ticket. At this point, most other museum staff would have just let me in, apologetically, as this was their inconvenience. But no, I had to leave again, buy some unwanted food at a local cafe and then return with the exact change. My main reason for visiting the museum was to see the Japanese Screens. When I finally was able to buy a ticket, at no point did any member of staff alert me to the fact that the entire floor the screens were on was closed. When I discovered I could not see the screens, I went to the front desk to complain and ask for a refund, as I would not have bought a ticket had I known this exhibit was closed. The staff were incredibly rude, not remotely apologetic about not alerting me and they were very defensive, basically shrugging and offering no explanation, apology or - crucially - refund. Literally the worst experience I have ever had in a...

If you only have time to visit one art museum in Portugal, no doubt, this is the one.

vast collections of mater--works of arts in different periods— one of my favorites is João Afonso’s Arcanjo São Miguel. Looking at his smile, understand there must be angel from heaven;

creative exhibition arrangements-- go to see the scene they created at end of crib show room, excellent example of mix and match between old and modern;

rigorous research—read the leaflet they prepared for that breath-taking work: Martyrdom of St. John Damascene by Luigi Miradori on their latest exhibition cooperated with Fundação Gaudium Magnum – Maria e João Cortez de Lobão (FGM) , which give a good demonstration of how they study a work and also try to pass their achievement and the beauty of the art to their visitors by shifting boring technical term into a easy understanding explanation.

After visit, do not forget to sit down awhile at the garden in front of museum, rest you soul a little bit with a little poem by Teixeira de Pascoaes there:

Ser alegre é ser luz, rir é florir cravos na infância, rosas pequeninas. São sorrisos de amor que...