Istanbul Modern

Istanbul Modern (İstanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi) is Turkey's first and only museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Founded in 2004 by the industrialist Oya Koçarslan and her son, the museum moved in 2023 to a brand-new Renzo Piano-designed building on the Karaköy waterfront — a five-story glass-and-aluminum structure that reads like a stack of overlapping horizontal slabs.

The permanent collection includes major works of 20th-century Turkish art (Fikret Muallâ, İbrahim Balaban, the d-Group, the Istanbul School), plus photography and video. The temporary exhibitions range from Picasso to a recent Cindy Sherman retrospective; the museum has established itself as one of the leading contemporary art spaces in the region.

The building also houses a permanent photography section on the lower floors, a cinema, and a rooftop restaurant with one of the best views of the Bosphorus in the city. The waterfront location, opposite the ferry terminals and Maiden's Tower visible in the distance, makes it a natural end-of-day stop.

Closed Mondays. ~15 EUR. The rooftop restaurant is the only museum restaurant in Istanbul with a serious Bosphorus view.