It opened in April 2012 and now contains more than a thousand objects. However, he has not specified which of the objects are directly linked to his own life he maintains that the narrative of the museum should reflect that of the novel and not his own, having stated that, “This is not Orhan Pamuk’s museum.” Īfter the novel was published in Turkish in 2008, the museum’s collection was finalized, together with a multidisciplinary team of artists, designer and architects. Pamuk states that some of the objects displayed in the museum belonged to family and friends, while others were found elsewhere in Istanbul, or collected from around the world. “I wanted to collect and exhibit the 'real' objects of a fictional story in a museum and to write a novel based on these objects,” he said.

Pamuk first began to collect objects for the museum in the mid-1990s. According to the museum website, the collection, which includes more than a thousand objects, presents what the novel’s characters 'used, wore, heard, saw, collected and dreamed of, all meticulously arranged in boxes and display cabinets.' The novel details the story of Kemal, a wealthy Istanbulite who falls in love with his poorer cousin, Füsun, and the museum displays the artefacts of their love story. The narrative and the museum offer a glimpse into upper-class Istanbul life from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

On, the museum was announced as the winner of the 2014 European Museum of the Year Award. The museum and the novel were created in tandem, centred on the stories of two Istanbul families. The Museum of Innocence ( Turkish: Masumiyet Müzesi) is a museum in a 19th-century house in Istanbul ( Çukurcuma) created by novelist Orhan Pamuk as a companion to his novel The Museum of Innocence.

A view of The Museum of Innocence from Çukurcuma Caddesi, Istanbul.

The museum of innocence author pamuk