The Cotroceni National Museum has awarded the ceremonial medal the „Cotroceni National Museum at 15 years“ to its partners and collaborators who have been supporting the institution’s events:
        •  Marius Vatavu, President-General Director, The National Postal Service;
        •  Anca Florea - musicologist;
        •  Răzvan Şindilaru, Cronica Română Daily;
        •  Roland Cătălin Pena, Editor in Chief, Ziua Daily;
        •  Diana Dumitru, Producer „Cultural journal“, TVR Cultural.

           The Cotroceni National Museum, together with the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, the Art Museum in Constanţa, the Eco - Museum Research Institute in Tulcea, the Art Museum in Craiova, the Art Museum in Timişoara and the Municipality Museum in Bucharest have opened on Wednesday, the 17th of June 2009, the exhibition „Nicolae Dărăscu - a Magician with Colour“.
           He was born in Giurgiu in 1883 and attended the National Art School in Bucharest between 1902 and 1906, where he took painting lessons with George Demetrescu Mirea and drawing lessons with Ipolit Strâmbu and with Dimitrie Serafim.  The following year, he was accepted at the „Julian Academy“ in Paris, studying with Jean Paul Laurens and the Art Academy with Luc Olivier Merson. He traveled to Saint Tropez and Venice in 1908 and opened his first exhibition in 1911 at the Romanian Athenaeum.
           He worked in Dobrudja and again in Venice, and exhibited in The Hague, Amsterdam and Brussels, he was appointed substitute teacher of drawing at the Art School in Bucharest.
           In 1942 he participated at the Venice Biennale and the Romanian Exhibition in Bratislava and became a full professor at the Art Academy in Bucharest. In 1946 he was awarded the National Award for Painting together with Francisc Şirato. He died on August 4th 1959 in Bucharest.
           The exhibition opened today is a retrospective of his work, 50 years after his passing (1959-2009). The exhibition presents the public 60 works by Dărăscu, mainly landscapes and water sceneries, inspired by his travels in the south of France, Venice, Balcic and Dobrudja. Influenced by Impressionism and Neoimpressionism, Dărăscu stands as an original modern Romanian painter.
           On this occasion, the Cotroceni National Museum received the Excellency Diploma for Support and the Ceremonial medal the Art Musem in Craiova, 1908 - 2008.

            The event was followed by a concert featuring the sopranos Patricia Seymour and Mioara Manea Arvunescu and the tenor Răzvan Săraru, joined by Adina Cocargeanu, piano. Featured works by Leonard Bernstein, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Giacomo Puccini, Agustin Lara, Paul Abraham, Franz Lehar, Giuseppe Verdi, Frederick Loewe.