ISTANBUL — A museum that opened in Turkey this month became the talk of the art scene — for the wrong reason.

The Odunpazari Modern Museum in Eskisehir, a city 120 miles southeast of Istanbul, is an attention-grabbing piece of architecture: a series of wooden boxes piled on each other. But the building attracted less attention than one of the works inside: “Vav,” a simple painting of an Arabic letter.

The artist? Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president.

He painted it on canvas last year as part of the building’s groundbreaking, and it had been hung on a wall in time for the president’s return to open the museum on Sept. 7.

“The problem is it’s disrespectful to other artists who they’re exhibiting there,” said Asli Cavusoglu, an Istanbul artist who has exhibited at the New Museum in New York. It was like a businessman donating to a museum and then showing their drawings in it, she added. The museum declined to comment .