MO Museum Vilnius: Tickets, Daniel Libeskind Architecture, Exhibitions and Hours

In this guide

💡 The Short Version: A standard adult ticket costs €11.00 and discounted tickets cost €6.00 (mo.lt), with a free digital audio guide on your smartphone. The museum is open Wednesday to Monday 10:00 to 20:00 and is strictly closed on Tuesdays. The outdoor sculpture garden and bleacher stairway facing Pylimo Street are open free of charge daily. Or book a tour: Vilnius: Old Town Walking Tour with Local Guide & Chocolatead (from €21, 4.9 stars from 26 reviews) is a 2.5-hour Old Town walk with a local guide, for seeing the historic centre on the same trip.

⚠️ Closed Tuesdays. MO Museum does not open on Tuesdays. Because the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (KGB Museum) is also closed on Tuesdays, plan your Tuesday schedule around open historic sights like Gediminas Tower, the Palace of the Grand Dukes, and Vilnius Cathedral.

Ticket prices and concessions

Tickets are sold at the glass reception counter inside the main atrium at Pylimo g. 17 or online in advance via the museum portal. During major temporary exhibition openings and weekend afternoons, online booking helps bypass admissions queues.

Free admission is granted to visitors aged 80 and over, Lithuanian museum professionals, and fine arts students.

The official Vilnius Pass grants a €6.00 reduction on adult entry; present your pass QR code at the ticket desk to pay the reduced €5.00 entry fee.

MO Museum in winter. Photo: Felix Winkelnkemper, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Opening hours and visiting logistics

MO Museum is open six days a week and stays open until 20:00 (mo.lt):

The museum is closed on Easter Sunday and 24–25 December, and opens at 13:00 on 1 January. Allow 1.5 to 2 hours for the main temporary exhibition, the smaller gallery and the sculpture garden.

The architecture: Studio Libeskind in Vilnius

Opened on 18 October 2018, the 3,100-square-metre building represents the first completed commission in the Baltic States by Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind (Studio Libeskind), executed in collaboration with local Lithuanian studio Do Architects.

Libeskind designed the building as an “open cultural gateway” bridging the medieval Old Town with the 18th-century grid of Naujamiestis:

1. The fractured facade: The exterior is clad in white plaster panels. A diagonal public staircase cuts through the centre of the building, from the pavement up to a roof terrace.
2. The open-air amphitheatre: The wide wooden steps of the stairway double as public seating, where locals read, drink coffee and watch outdoor summer film screenings.
3. The spiral staircase: Inside the glass-walled lobby, a freestanding white steel and concrete spiral staircase curves up without a central support to the upper exhibition hall. Libeskind noted that it was the first circular staircase he had designed, a contrast with his usual sharp angles.

The public bleacher stairs and facade of MO Museum. Photo: Sdkb, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The collection and exhibitions

MO Museum began in 2009 as the private initiative of scientists and biotech entrepreneurs Danguolė Butkienė and Viktoras Butkus. Recognizing that Lithuania lacked a dedicated institution for modern art created under Soviet rule, the founders spent a decade acquiring over 6,000 works of art:

• Soviet Non-Conformism (1950s–1980s): During the Soviet era, artists who refused to adhere to ideological Socialist Realism were barred from state exhibitions. The MO collection preserves rare canvases, collages, and sculptures by underground Lithuanian masters who painted in secret, including Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė, Vincas Kisarauskas, and Eugenijus Cukermanas.
• Post-Soviet Freedom and Photography: The collapse of the Soviet Union unleashed an explosion of conceptual art, installation work, and raw documentary photography capturing the turbulent 1990s transition to capitalism, notably through the lens of Algimantas Kunčius, Romualdas Požerskis, and Antanas Sutkus.
• Rotating exhibitions: MO has no permanent hang. It rotates its main spaces every six months with themed exhibitions on social issues, identity, gender and technology, plus smaller monographic shows in the second-floor gallery.

The outdoor sculpture garden

The free Sculpture Garden (Skulptūrų sodas) surrounds the museum along Pylimo Street.

It shows bronze, stone and steel works by Lithuanian National Prize laureates:

• Water Lily by Mindaugas Navakas, in industrial steel.
• Figurative bronzes by Petras Mazūras and Ksenija Jaroševaitė.
• Wooden benches and flower beds set back from the busy Pylimo street.

The contemporary architecture and outdoor stairs of MO Museum. Photo: Terminator216, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tours and guided walks

The free smartphone guide is enough for the museum itself. A guided walk adds the political history of Soviet Vilnius behind the art.

Vilnius: Old Town Walking Tour with Local Guide & Chocolate

From €21 · 4.9 stars from 26 reviews · 2.5 hours · local guide and chocolate tasting

Vilnius: Old Town Walking Tour with Local Guide & Chocolatead: a walk through the Old Town led by a local, covering the city’s history, everyday life and hidden corners, with chocolate as part of the tour.

Vilnius: City Bike Tour of Vilnius Highlights

From €29 · 4.8 stars from 347 reviews · 2.5 hours · bike tour of the Old Town

Vilnius: City Bike Tour of Vilnius Highlightsad: a bike tour of the main sights, through the Old Town and Cathedral Square.

Vilnius: Hidden Courtyards and Lost City Walking Tour

From €25 · 5.0 stars from 8 reviews · 2.5 hours · secret courtyards and passages

Vilnius: Hidden Courtyards and Lost City Walking Tourad: a guided route through the Old Town’s secret courtyards and passages, looking for traces of the lost city and hidden art.

Official ticket or tour: the prices side by side

Practical tips for visitors

• Bring Headphones: The museum’s interactive digital audioguide operates via your mobile web browser with QR codes posted throughout the galleries. Bring wired or Bluetooth headphones so you can listen comfortably without holding your phone to your ear.
• MO Bistro and Bookshop: The ground floor houses a design and art bookshop (MO Knygynas) stocking Lithuanian photography volumes, architectural monographs, and contemporary literature. The adjoining MO Bistro serves craft coffee, brunch, and seasonal dishes with outdoor terrace seating.
• Accessibility: The building has automatic doors, lifts and step-free floors, so wheelchairs can reach all gallery floors and the toilets.
• Getting There: The museum is located at Pylimo g. 17. The nearest public transit stop is Trakų (served by bus line 89 and trolleybus lines 1, 2, 7, and 20), located directly outside the building. It is a 6-minute walk west from Town Hall Square (Rotušės aikštė).

What to see next

• Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (KGB Museum): Walk 12 minutes north along Pylimo Street to examine Soviet totalitarian history.
• Gate of Dawn: Follow the historic perimeter wall south-east to the pilgrimage chapel.
• Vilnius University and St John’s: Walk 8 minutes east into the baroque quadrangles of Old Town.
• Where to Eat in Vilnius: Restaurants around Pylimo and Vokiečių streets.
• Vilnius City Hub: All our Vilnius guides.

Common questions

How much are tickets for the MO Museum in Vilnius?

Standard adult admission is €11.00, and discounted tickets for schoolchildren, students, children aged 4 to 7 and seniors up to 80 cost €6.00. Children under 3, seniors over 80 and visitors with disabilities enter free. A family ticket covering two adults and up to four children under 18 costs €22.00.

What are the opening hours of the MO Museum?

The MO Museum is open Wednesday to Monday from 10:00 to 20:00. It is closed every Tuesday. The ticket desk and museum cafe close 30 minutes before the galleries.

Who designed the MO Museum building?

Daniel Libeskind (Studio Libeskind) designed it with the Lithuanian studio Do Architects. It opened on 18 October 2018, and its white facade is cut by an open-air diagonal public stairway, with a spiral staircase inside.

What art is on display at the MO Museum?

The museum holds over 6,000 works of Lithuanian modern and contemporary art from the 1950s to the present, covering painting, sculpture and photography from Soviet-era non-conformism to contemporary installations.

Is the outdoor sculpture garden free to visit?

Yes. The sculpture garden and the stepped amphitheatre outside the museum are free and open daily, with bronze and stone works by Lithuanian sculptors.

Is the MO Museum included in the Vilnius Pass?

The official Vilnius Pass provides a €6.00 discount off standard adult ticket admission at the MO Museum box office.