On 20 September 1937, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, suggested its conversion into a museum since the imperial family had been driven into exile with the coming of the Turkish Republic.

The building chosen - Antrepo No 5 - was originally designed to serve the old port at Karaköy by the Turkish architect Sedad Hakkı Eldem.

It has been repurposed to serve as an art gallery by the Emre Arolat firm of architects.

A whole gallery is devoted to the work of Osman Hamdi Bey, the founder of Istanbul's first school of art and himself a painter.

[3] Another gallery displays copies of paintings hanging in overseas museums made by Turkish artists in the early days of the Republic when Osman Hamdi Bey and his brother, Halil Edhem Eldem, thought this would help develop a new figurative art tradition for the country.