Guimet Museum of Asian Arts

The Asian Arts Museum began from the merging of a number of other collections. The first contribution arrived from the personal collection of the great industrialist Emile Guimet. Guimet was a wealthy man and in 1876 he set off to travel the world.

On the course of his travels, he acquired a large collection of objects, which he displayed in a museum in Lyon. This museum was transferred to Paris, united with the fruit of explorer Louis Delaporte’s journeys in Siam and Cambodia. Together the collections amassed to form the fabulous collection of Khmer art now known as Musée National des Arts Asiatiques.

The Museum later underwent major refurbishment and during the 1920s and 1930s the collection steadily grew. By 1938 the Musée Guimet had acquired a worldwide reputation for its collections of art from the Indianized civilizations of Asia.

In 1945 the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques started transferring its Egyptian pieces to the Louvre and, in return, received the entire collection of objects from their Department of Asian Arts.

Departments include Afghanistan-Pakistan, Arts of Himalaya, The Himalayan collection, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, China, Korea, India, and Japan.