Christian Ringnes of Norway has opened the The Mini Bottle Gallery. It is housed in a 20,000 square foot building in Oslo City Center, where he exhibits 12,500 miniatures of his collection of some 40,000 miniature bottles to the public. This much anticipated Mini Bottle Gallery is a spectacular walk through the history of miniature bottles, as well as a whimsical journey through all of the special effects. THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE IT IN THE WORLD!!!!
The exhibition is built around several themes, with special sound, lighting and smell effects. Visitors enter the building through a bottle-shaped passage way, through a cascade of champagne. Among the themed rooms, there is the sports room, the fruit room, the bird wall, the jungle, the circus, the music room, the room of famous persons, the globe, the animal farm, the room of the occult and creepy, and the room of "sin". All the theme rooms are based around displays of figural bottles. There will also be a Dutch room with canal houses, a Scotch room with kilts, bagpipes and scotch bottles, a beer hall and a room with moving cars, trains and aircraft. Keep in mind, special effects abound in this fabulous Gallery. No big-named theme park could have done as well.
On the ground floor of the Gallery, there is a bar heavily decorated with miniature bottles which will be open to the general public. The centerpiece of the bar is the miniature above, the Mini Bottle Man. On the second floor, there is a conference/dining room section, also heavily adorned with mini bottles, highlighted by a chandelier of 1500 glass, Absolut Vodka minis. One of Norway's most distinguished restauranteurs, whose Michelin Guide one star restaurant is the closest neighbor of the museum, caters events at the Gallery.
The Gallery has a budget of $2,000,000 and opened in May 2003.
The Gallery is open during the week for special events as it is a meeting and conference center. It is open on weekends by special arrangement, so please contact the Gallery before you visit. Contact the Gallery at mb@minibottlegallery.com to request a special showing.
The Gallery is a product of more than 30 years of miniature bottle collecting by Christian Ringnes. The MMBC has been an important source of bottles and he is particularly proud to have secured the very special collection of the late Tony Dobyns (Longtime MMBCer and bottle collector from Missouri) for the museum. The Mini Bottle Gallery website is http://www.minibottlegallery.com
