Museum of Cultures Basel

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Museum of Cultures in Basel

The Museum of Cultures Basel (German: Museum der Kulturen Basel) is a Swiss museum of ethnography with large and important collections of artifacts, especially from Europe, the South Pacific, Mesoamerica, Tibet, and Bali. It is a heritage site of national significance.^[1]

The museum's building was built in 1849 to house different collections (art, history, ethnography, natural history) that had been brought to Basel from throughout the world. The ethnographic collection became an independent institution inside the building in 1917 and was known as the Ethnographic Museum Basel (Völkerkundemuseum Basel). In the early 20th century the museum began sponsoring expeditions to enhance its collections. Opened as a conventional ethnological museum, the museum shifted its focus over time from the dissemination of information on "different cultures" to the promotion of intercultural dialog, leading to its official renaming in 1996 as the Museum of Cultures.

With about 300,000 objects and a similar number of historic photographs, the museum is the largest of its kind in Switzerland and one of the biggest in Europe. It also serves the canton of Basel-City by documenting and preserving the local cultural legacy.

As of 2006, the museum plans to build a new exhibition hall to expand its exhibition space, while also creating a new entrance.