A car museum has opened its doors in Vilnius. Situated in the old Taxi Park, the exhibition sports cars from the interwar and Soviet eras, as well as from far-flung places in the world.
“We have over 100 vehicles, including bicycles, carriages, cars, motorcycles, and several exhibits of heavy machinery,” said Alfredas Eitutis, the founder of the Auto Museum (Auto muziejus).
“There are some special-purpose vehicles, including a fire engine and a police car. We are also exhibiting the petrol stations, and there is also a military section,” he added.
There are also many American-made exhibits.
“Historically, before the Second World War, the largest car manufacturing industry was based in Detroit. In our country, these [American] cars were the most common vehicles because they were cheaper than their European counterparts,” Eitutis said.
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According to him, an old historic car is not only a means of transport but also a movable cultural heritage object.
“There are exhibits from more than one collection. One part of it comes from different countries of the Soviet bloc, another part even comes from New Zealand and Australia,” he said.
Before the Second World War, all cars were essentially wooden, with tin covering the wood structure, Eitutis explains.
The museum also has a car which belonged to Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, Lithuania’s first president after regaining independence in 1990.
“It is symbolic that it is the oldest surviving presidential car in Lithuania, because, between the world wars, all the presidential cars in Lithuania were nationalised, stolen, taken out of the country, and no longer exist,” said Eitutis.
“We have lost a significant piece of history. The car itself has passed through many hands, so it has found its symbolic storage place in Vilnius,” he added.
The exhibition also managed to recreate the car of Antanas Smetona, Lithuania’s interwar leader, by searching for the most similar model based on archival video footage.
“This is what will be exhibited here – the main car of Smetona's first term, and there is also a replacement car from his second term, which was used to transport him when he fled from Lithuania,” said Eitutis.
According to him, designers made their cars into objects of art.
“Most of us are consumers. If you look at the designers who made the cars, the people who drove them, you can look at the exhibits as a story with personalities,” he said.
“What you see in the car you can see in the interiors of the time: we have art deco exhibits, so you find art deco colours or art deco buildings,” Eitutis added.
The history of Delage D8L is particularly interesting.
“It was made for the King of Nepal. The car was manufactured in Paris and shipped to Nepal. Then another man saw the car in 1970, took pictures, kept them for years, and wrote a letter to his dad asking him to send him money to buy it. But the father said he wouldn't pay several thousand dollars for an old tranny,” Eitutis said.
In his words, the museum will be further developed as a living, transforming organism.
“There is a very popular subculture of historic vehicles abroad: people spend their leisure time with them, go out to enjoy them in good weather,” said Eitutis. “To encourage this, we will want to change the exhibits in the museum, and we will try to organise events on vintage vehicles and various educational activities in the museum. We have a lot of ideas and dreams, and we will see how many we can fulfil during this year.”
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