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Musée Guimet

Musée Guimet

Paris , France
The Guimet Museum (full name in French: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet, MNAAG; Musée Guimet, is a Parisian art museum with one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art outside of Asia which includes items from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Tibet, India, and Nepal, among other countries.

Founded in the late 19th century, it is located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, at 6, Place d'Iéna. Its name literally translated into English is the National Museum of Asian Arts-Guimet, or Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts.

Founded by Émile Étienne Guimet, a French industrialist and traveler, the museum first opened in Lyon in 1879 but was later transferred to Paris, opening on the Place d'Iéna in 1889. Devoted to travel, Guimet was in 1876 commissioned by the minister of public instruction to study the religions of the Far East, and the museum contains many of the fruits of this expedition, including a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain and objects relating not merely to the religions of the East, but also to those of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. One of its wings, the Panthéon Bouddhique, displays Buddhist artworks.

Some of the museum's artifacts, originating from Cambodia, are connected with the studies conducted by the first scholars to be interested in Khmer sculpture, Louis Delaporte and Etienne Aymonier. They sent examples of Khmer art to France at a time when museums were not existing in Southeast Asia, with the agreement of the King of Cambodia, to show to Europe the high level of the ancient Khmer culture.

From December 2006 to April 2007, the museum harboured collections of the Kabul Museum, with archaeological pieces from the Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum, and the Indo-Scythian treasure of Tillia Tepe.

About

The Guimet Museum (full name in French: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet, MNAAG; Musée Guimet, is a Parisian art museum with one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art outside of Asia which includes items from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Tibet, India, and Nepal, among other countries.

Founded in the late 19th century, it is located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, at 6, Place d'Iéna. Its name literally translated into English is the National Museum of Asian Arts-Guimet, or Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts.

Founded by Émile Étienne Guimet, a French industrialist and traveler, the museum first opened in Lyon in 1879 but was later transferred to Paris, opening on the Place d'Iéna in 1889. Devoted to travel, Guimet was in 1876 commissioned by the minister of public instruction to study the religions of the Far East, and the museum contains many of the fruits of this expedition, including a fine collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain and objects relating not merely to the religions of the East, but also to those of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. One of its wings, the Panthéon Bouddhique, displays Buddhist artworks.

Some of the museum's artifacts, originating from Cambodia, are connected with the studies conducted by the first scholars to be interested in Khmer sculpture, Louis Delaporte and Etienne Aymonier. They sent examples of Khmer art to France at a time when museums were not existing in Southeast Asia, with the agreement of the King of Cambodia, to show to Europe the high level of the ancient Khmer culture.

From December 2006 to April 2007, the museum harboured collections of the Kabul Museum, with archaeological pieces from the Greco-Bactrian city of Ai-Khanoum, and the Indo-Scythian treasure of Tillia Tepe.

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Details

Country
France
City
Paris
Address
6 Place d'Iéna, 75116 Paris

Contact

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