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June 2005

The art of shopping

Scouring Munich’s museum and gallery shops

There is no doubt that Munich is a city rich in culture. The numerous museums and galleries not only provide the opportunity to take in some world-class art, but also make for some great shopping. Less crowded than city center stores, open on Sundays and stocking unusual items, they are every shopaholic’s best-kept secret. Where else could you buy a cake slice designed by Philippe Starck, a designer Latte Macchiato set or a kids’ Monet memory game under one roof? Let the shopping begin!

Bookworms should know about the wonderful bookstore in the Haus der Kunst (Prinzregentenstrasse 1). It stocks books about art, design, fashion and photography as well as a large selection of postcards. These are contemporary coffee table books at their finest—it may feel a little indulgent to buy them for yourself, but they make fantastic gifts. They often have good sales in the store with generous reductions. Although most of the books are in German, there are some in English and even multi-language editions.
www.hausderkunst.de

The Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung’s shop in the Fünf Höfe is small but perfectly stocked. It sells a lot of stationary, including calendars, diaries and beautiful greetings cards. The main emphasis seems to be on nicely packaged, quirky items that people find hard to resist. You can find some great modern designs in this shop, like the address book that has concertina pages sandwiched between two credit-card size covers. Because it is so small and flat, it is the perfect traveling companion. The shop also has a lot of fun toys and games for kids.
www.hypo-kunsthalle.de

For somewhere more traditional, try the store in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (Prinzregentenstrasse 3). There is something for everyone here: stickers, scrapbooks, kaleidoscopes and games for kids; elegant silk ties from the Museum of Modern Art in New York for men; and a selection of beautiful jewelry for women. The store also stocks books, table decorations and historic porcelain. There are a couple of other things worth knowing about this place (which may sound like useless information now, but will come back to you when you need it most). The first is that it has a huge selection of paper masks to transform yourself for a fancy-dress party—turn yourself into a woman from the 1920s, a clown, a pirate or a judge. They are so effective that you could almost forget the rest of the costume! The second is that the shop stocks some traditional Christmas cards and nativity figurines. So if you can’t wait until November to start feeling festive, or need to send cards overseas before the other shops get the Christmas stock in, this is the place to look.
www.bayerisches-nationalmuseum.de

The tiny shop in the foyer of the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde (Maximilianstrasse 42) is everything you would expect of a shop in a museum of ethnology. You can buy unusual trinkets from around the world and pretend you have just got back from somewhere exotic. It sells, among other things, beautiful silver Indian jewelry, embroidered Moroccan slippers and exotic incense. And how about wrapping it up in a delicate gift bag made from sari material, or a brightly colored throw? The shop also stocks a lot of interesting books and postcards.
www.voelkerkundemuseum-muenchen.de

The shop in the Alte Pinakothek, like those of the other two Pinakotheks and the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, is stocked by CEDON shopping service. They sell books, postcards, posters and prints. If you want to buy your loved-one something out of the ordinary, how about a paper build-it-yourself model of the Alte Pinakothek? At least you can be sure nobody else will have got them the same thing! This is also the place to come if you’re looking for a special umbrella—they are in fact so special that you might just catch yourself hoping for rain! And if you’re after a present for the lady in your life, the shop also has a great collection of jewelry.

www.pinakothek.de

One shop not to be forgotten—especially when it comes to buying children’s birthday presents or unusual things for friends who have everything—is that in the Deutsches Museum. There are so many fascinating things in here that you’ll find yourself buying them, and only later thinking who you can give them to. From games and puzzles to quirky gadgets and stocking fillers and much more, the contents of this shop are truely eye-opening for shopper and recipient alike.
www.deutsches-museum-shop.com

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