The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (; MNAA), also known in English as the National Museum of Ancient Art, is a Portuguese national art museum located in Lisbon. With over 40,000 items spanning a vast collection of painting, sculpture, goldware, furniture, textiles, ceramics, and prints, MNAA is one of the most visited museums in Portugal. The MNAA was founded in 1884 to display the collections of the Portuguese royal family and the National Academy of Fine Arts. It is housed in the Palácio Alvor-Pombal, a former residence of the 1st Marquis of Pombal which was expanded when it was converted into a museum. The museum's collection spans more than a millennium of art from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas and includes notable artworks by Hieronymus Bosch, Raphael, Hans Holbein the Elder, Francisco de Zurbarán, Albrecht Dürer, Domingos Sequeira, and Giambattista Tiepolo, among numerous others. History Origins The museum has its roots in the 1833 abolition of religious orders and confiscation of the monasteries in Portugal, which brought a trove of religious art and ornaments into the public sphere. At the instigation of the liberal politician Passos Manuel, the Academia de Bellas Artes ("Academy of Fine Arts") was founded in 1836, and established its headquarters at the former monastery of São Francisco da Cidade (near the Chiado). Although primarily dedicated to nurturing new artists, that same year, the Academia founded the Galeria Nacional de Pintura ("National Gallery of Painting") on the lower levels of the same building, as a subsidiary division to select, care for and display some of the better pieces of the expropriated monastic art then in government storage. An Academia panel selected some 540 paintings for the Galeria. Predictably, most of these were religious-oriented pieces of Portuguese origin. In the chaos and aftermath of the Portuguese Liberal Wars, some of the private art collections of ruined noble families were expropriated or found their way on to the market. Of particular significance was the painting collection of the disgraced former queen, the late Carlota Joaquina, which was acquired by the Portuguese government and given to the Academia in 1859. The former king Ferdinand II of Portugal, a connoisseur of fine arts, took an interest in the budding organization, secured its royal sponsorship (it was renamed Academia Real de Belas Artes in 1862) and, in 1865–67, Ferdinand II made a series of substantial cash donations, giving the Galeria an