Guimet Museum

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The Guimet Museum in Paris, 2005.

The Guimet Museum (French: Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet or Musée Guimet) is a museum of Asian art located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. It has one of the largest collections of Asian art outside Asia.

The museum which was first located at Lyon in 1879 and was handed over to the state and transferred to Paris in 1885, was founded by Émile Étienne Guimet, an industrialist. 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 many 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 religious artworks.

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

1 Works of Art of the Guimet Museum
2 See also
3 External links

[edit] Works of Art of the Guimet Museum

[edit] Greco-Buddhist art

Gandhara Buddha, 1st-2nd century CE.	Hellenistic decorative scrolls from Hadda, northern Pakistan.	Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE.	Stone palette of a Nereid sea-goddess riding a Ketos sea-monster, Sirkap, 2nd century BCE.
Wine-drinking and music, Hadda, 1st-2nd century CE.	A Corinthian capitol with a Buddha at its center, 2nd century CE, Surk Kotal, Afghanistan.	The Greek god Atlas, supporting a Buddhist monument, Hadda.	The Bodhisattva Maitreya, 2nd century, Gandhara.
Scene of the life of the Buddha. 2nd-3rd century. Gandhara.	Portraits from the site of Hadda, 3rd century CE.

[edit] Serindian art

"Heroic gesture of the Bodhisattva", 6th-7th century terracotta, Tumshuq (Xinjiang).

Head of a Bodhisattva, 6th-7th century terracotta, Tumshuq (Xinjiang).

[edit] Chinese art

Han Dynasty Horse (1st-2nd century C.E.)	Buddha triad, Eastern Wei (534-550), China.	Tang Dynasty Foreign Merchant	Northern Qi depiction of Sogdians
A tag describing a Chinese artifact, with both Chinese and French captions	A sitting celadon lion, dated 11th to 12th century, Song Dynasty.	A porcelain vase with design of men fighting on horseback, from the Jiajing reign period (1521–1567), Ming Dynasty.

[edit] Indian art

An aniconic representation of Mara's assault on the Buddha, 2nd century CE, Amaravati, Guntur, India.	The Bodhisattva Maitreya, 2nd century CE, Mathura.	A Buddha, 2nd century, Mathura.	Buddha of the Gupta period, 5th century, Mathura.
Head of a Buddha, Gupta period, 6th century.	Buddha and Bodhisattvas, 11th century, Pala Empire.

[edit] Southeast Asian art

Mons Wheel of the Law (Dharmacakra), art of Dvaravati, c.8th century.

A Cambodian Buddha, 14th century

Bodhisattva Lokesvara, Cambodia 12th century.

[edit] See also

List of museums in Paris

[edit] External links

Musée Guimet

v • d • e

Museums with major collections of Asian Art

Forbidden City *, Beijing, China

1,000,000 objects ^[1]
National Palace Museum *, Taipei, Taiwan

700,000 objects [1]
National Museum of China *¹, Beijing, China

620,000 objects [2]
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK

160,000 objects [3]
National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea

150,000 objects [4]
Shanghai Museum *, China

120,000 objects [5]
National Museum ², Japan

120,000 objects [6]

British Library ³, London, UK

90,000 objects [7] [8]
British Museum, London, UK

75,000 objects [9] [10]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

60,000 objects [11]]
Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France

58,000 objects [12]
Musee Guimet, Paris, France

~50,000 objects [13]
Museum of Fine Arts **, Boston, USA

~40,000 objects [14]
Horniman Museum, London, UK

32,000 objects [15]

Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, Germany

20,000 objects [16]
Art Institute of Chicago ***, USA

35,000 objects [17]
Freer Gallery of Art / Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA

18,200 objects [18]
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA

17,000 objects [19]
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, USA

10,450 objects [20]

Please Note - * : These three museum's specialise in only Chinese items, the collections are not comprehensive for all Asia - *¹ National Museum of China: Includes contemporary collections, science & technology and decorative arts, however the vast majority derives from the Imperial collection, divided between Beijing and the National Palace Museum, Taipei - ² National Museum: This includes the combined holdings of the three museums that make up the National Museum, i.e. Tokyo National Museum, Kyoto National Museum, Nara National Museum - ³ British Library: No sculptures or architecural elements, the world's largest collection of ancient manuscripts from Asia, including the Stein Collection - Misleading Collection: ² Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Asian collection includes books, prints, postcards and modern paraphernalia, website indicates a massive collection, which is misleading - Misleading Collection: ³ Art Institute of Chicago: The Near & Middle East objects are included within the scope of the collection, overinflates size.

n.b. it should be noted that this list is controversial, in so far as it contains only qualitative analysis of museum holdings. These may or may not reflect actual artistic quality of collections in question.