Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts | Guimet Museum

Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts | Guimet Museum

Founded in 1889, the Guimet Museum displays the most complete collection of Asian art in the world and the largest in Europe. From Lyon to Paris Originally installed in Lyon and later transferred to the building he built on Mont Chaillot in Paris, this historic building on the Place de l'Ière was born from Émile Guimet's major project to create a religious museum after his trip to Egypt, a project that would prove decisive. Passionate about the Orient and its civilizations, he assembled his own extraordinary collection, especially those brought back from his trip to Japan, China and India between 1876 and 1877. The collection is expanding across Asia Émile Guimet was not the only one interested in Asia, as shown by the survey and exploration missions of Victor Collin de Plancy and Charles Varat in Korea in 1889, Louis Delaporte's expeditions to Cambodia in 1873 and 1880, Paul Pelliot's studies in China and Central Asia from 1906-1909, or Jacques Bacot's in Tibet, or Alfred Fouché's in India and Afghanistan. These missions gave rise to important scientific work that contributed to the knowledge of these civilizations in the West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From the 1920s, their discoveries would enrich the collections of the Guimet Museum, as would those of Joseph Hackin, an Afghan archaeologist, and Philippe Stern, an art historian of Cambodia and the Champa Province (Vietnam), thanks to their contacts with the French Archaeological Mission to Afghanistan (DAFA) and the French School of the Far East (EFEO). Museum acquires collections from the Louvre In 1945, as part of a large-scale reorganization of the French national collections, the Guimet Museum was assigned part of the collections of the Louvre Museum (including the famous Grandier Collection), and in fact, the Guimet Museum became one of the main French museums of Asian art. world. Built since 1938 around the "Khmer Courtyard" and the splendid Guimet Library, classified as a "Historical Monument", the museum began an extensive renovation program led by French architects Henri and Bruno Gaudin in 1996. Priority was given to daylight, open views and terraces with panoramic views of Paris. The new museum, with a monumental staircase, was inaugurated in 2001 by President Jacques Chirac. Today, the Guimet Museum maintains close scientific and technical collaborations with the largest museums in Asia and contributes to a better understanding of the world of civilizations, peoples and faiths through the temporary exhibitions it organizes or participates in, both in Paris and around the world, in accordance with the wishes of its founder. The Guimet Museum is also affiliated with two other locations: the Ennery Museum in 1908 and the Hotel Heidelbach in 1991.

Reading: 24 2019-03-27

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