List of museums of Asian art

This is a list of museums with major collections of Asian art. This list is controversial, in so far as it contains only quantitative analysis of museum holdings. These may or may not reflect actual artistic quality of collections in question.

  1. Forbidden City *, Beijing, China
    1,000,000 objects [1]
  2. National Palace Museum *, Taipei, Taiwan
    700,000 objects [1]
  3. National Museum of China, Beijing, China
    620,000 objects [2] (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)
  4. National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea
    150,000 objects [3]
  5. Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
    130,000 objects [4] East and South Asian holdings.
  6. Shanghai Museum *, China
    120,000 objects [5]
  7. National Museum, Japan
    120,000 objects [6] (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)
  8. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
    ~100,000 objects [7]
  9. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
    60,000 objects [8] East, South, and Central Asian.
  10. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA
    60,000 objects [9]
  11. British Museum, London, UK
    55,000+ objects [10] East, South, and Central Asian.
  12. Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France.
    58,000 objects [11] Includes Islamic cultural materials.
  13. Musee Guimet, Paris, France
    ~50,000 objects [12]
  14. Field Museum, Chicago, USA
    ~50,000 objects[13]
  15. Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, USA
    ~40,000 objects[14]
  16. Art Institute of Chicago, USA
    35,000 objects [15] (The Near & Middle East objects are included)
  17. Freer Gallery of Art / Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA
    26,500 objects [16]
  18. Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, Germany
    20,000 objects [17]
  19. Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
    ~20,000 objects [18]
  20. Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA
    17,000 objects [19]
  21. Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, MA, USA
    16,000 objects [20]
  22. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, USA
    10,450 objects [21]

Several famous and distinguished collections, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Field Museum (Chicago), Museum of Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania, Los Angeles County Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Seattle Asian Art Museum do not provide adequate numerical information for their significant collections. This list, therefore, is only provisional.

Some collecting institutions combine their ethnographic, cultural, and artistic materials together in their total holdings. Such is the case of the British Museum, for example. It would be nearly impossible to distinguish between these types of objects (e.g. "fine arts") in developing a quantitative, as opposed to qualitative, ranking of this kind.

* These three museums specialise in only Chinese items; the collections are not comprehensive for all Asia

References

  1. ^ Wen, Lianxi (ed.) (1925). 故宫物品点查报告 [Palace items auditing report]. Beijing: Caretaker Committee of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Family. Reprint (2004): Xianzhuang Book Company. ISBN 7-80106-238-8