Turkish Nobel Prize winning author opens museum in Istanbul

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk inaugurated a museum based on his 2008 oeuvre “The Museum of Innocence” last week, about an obsessive man who collects things to remind him of his lover and soothe the pain of a doomed affair, The National reports.

The story, which takes place in Istanbul between 1975 and the present, focuses on the wealthy businessman Kemal Bey, who harbors a 30-year passion for the impoverished Fusun, a distant cousin and shop assistant, who becomes his mistress.

The 59-year-old Pamuk said his museum in the working-class district of Cukurcuma in Istanbul was aimed at reigniting the sentiments one felt while reading the book and not an "illustration" of it.

"The novel is not an explanation of the museum. They are deeply intertwined," he said.

The museum has 23 display cases, each representing a chapter of the book.

According to The New York Times, Pamuk said the museum cost him about what he received for the Nobel - roughly $1.5 million - including what he paid for the house 12 years ago, when he had the idea for the project.