Musée Cernuschi

The Musée Cernuschi (Cernuschi Museum) is an Asian art museum located at 7 avenue Vélasquez, near Parc Monceau, in Paris, France, specialising in China, Japan and Korea. Its collection in Asian art is second only to the Musée Guimet in Paris.

The museum was founded in 1898 by Henri Cernuschi (1821-1896) and is located in the small mansion which used to be his home. It describes itself as the second-oldest Asian art museum in France, and the fifth-oldest Chinese art museum in Europe. Over the years, its collection has gradually grown from some 5,000 objects to its current total of about 12,500 objects of art and archaeology. After the renovations which closed the Museum from 2001 to 2005, total exhibit space is now about 3,200 m².

Some 900 objects are on permanent exhibit. Most prominent is the large Buddha of Meguro, a Japanese bronze from the 18th century, collected by Cernuschi. Other permanent exhibits include:

• a fine collection of archaic bronze pieces (15th to 3rd centuries BC)
• Han Dynasty objects (206 BC - 220 AD)
• Funerary statues from the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) and Sui Dynasty (581-618)
• Tang Dynasty statues (618 - 907)
• Ceramics from the Tang and Song dynasties (6th through 13th centuries)
• funerary masks in gilded bronze dating from the Liao Dynasty (907-1125)

See also

• List of museums in Paris

References

• Cernuschi museum website (French, English, Chinese, Japanese)
• Marie-Thérèse Bobot, The Chinese Collections of the Cernuschi Museum: General Guide, Paris-Musées, 1993. ISBN 2879001544.
• Waldemar George, "Art in Paris: The Cernuschi Museum", The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 50, No. 290 (May, 1927), pp. 283-284.
• Vadime Elisseeff, Bronzes Archaïques Chinois Au Musée Cernuschi (Archaic Chinese Bronzes), L'Asiathèque, 1977.

• Cernuschi Museum feature on Paris Walking Tours website