PRESS RELEASE
International Museum Day at the Bank of Albania

The Museum of the Bank of Albania joined the International Museum Day 2026 activities organised throughout the world under the main theme: “Museums uniting a divided world.”

International Museum Day is celebrated annually on 18 May, on the initiative of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and aims to bring attention to the role of museums in society as they create a space for remembrance, education, dialogue, and shared understanding. In 2026, this day has a special significance because it corresponds with the eightieth anniversary of ICOM’s establishment.

On this special day, the Museum of the Bank of Albania welcomed visitors free of charge. They had the possibility of becoming acquainted with the monetary and institutional history of Albania at the Museum’s premises in Skanderbeg Square. They were also part of an exhibition, “Money Talks: 100 Years Life and Events at the Bank of Albania”, launched at the central bank’s second headquarters on “Dëshmorët e Kombit” Boulevard, No. 3.

A lecture was held during the afternoon titled “World in a Pocket: A Historical Journey of the Albanian Lek,” by Associate Professor Elidor Mëhilli. The lecture invited the public to a different way of understanding the history of the Albanian lek and the role of money in the political, economic, and cultural life of Albania during the 20th century. Based on his research on the history of socialism and Albania’s international relations during communism, Prof. Assoc. Mëhilli addressed the lek not just as a national symbol, but also as part of a broader transnational history. Through the Albanian iconography of banknotes and coins, the lecture shed light on how technology, aesthetic models, and the ideas of modern socialism travelled between Moscow and Tirana, and later from China to Albania during the sixties and seventies.

The central theme of this story was the question of how a quotidian object kept in the pocket can reflect global relationships, political transformations, and different visions of modernity, industrialisation, and development. The Museum of the Bank of Albania continues to develop activities on monetary history for the public through exhibitions, lectures, and educational programmes. The activities organised to celebrate International Museum Day aim to increase interest in Albanian economic history, numismatics, and banking, and to create a space for discussion and broaden knowledge of the monetary and cultural heritage of the country.