Musée Guimet / Arts Asiatiques Guimet, Paris

The Musée National Guimet has the most important collection of Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Nepalese and Tibetan art in France. The foundation of the museum was laid at the end of the 19th C, when the Lyons industrialist and traveller Emile Guimet (1836-1918) bequeathed his collection to the city of Paris. Since then the collection has been continuously enlarged in cooperation with the associated Institute for Research into East Asian Culture.

Musee Guimet (Arts Asiatiques Guimet) Map

Important Information:

Address: 6 place d'léna, F-75116 Paris, France

Opening hours: 10am-6pm; Closed: Tue

Entrance fee in EUR: Adult €7.00, Concession or reduced rate €5.00, Child 18 & under FREE

Useful tips: Group visit reserve 10 days in advance. Tour guide one day in advance. Documentation in foreign languages available. Sundays half price

Disability Access: Full facilities for persons with disabilities.

Guides: Guided tour included with admission.

Facilities: Gift shop, Wheelchair loan or rental

Transit: Metro 6 or 9 : Iena, Boissiere; Bus: 22, 32, 63, 82.

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Musee Guimet (Arts Asiatiques Guimet) Highlights

Khmer Sculptures

Particularly notable items on the ground floor are the Khmer sculptures from Cambodia (sixth-13th C.), bronzes from Java and Lamaist jewellery, paintings and religious objects from Nepal and Tibet, among them a fine gilt bronze figure of a Dakini dancing.

Indian Art and Chinese Lacquered Furniture

The first floor presents a survey of Indian art from the third millennium B.C. to the 20th century, with valuable Buddhist reliefs of the school of Amaravati (first-third C.), sculpture from Gandhara (first-sixth C.) and the cosmic dance of Shiva. Also on this floor are Chinese lacquered furniture, jade, bronzes and vases (including an elephant vase of the 10th century B.C.)

Ceramic collection from China, Korea and Japan

The ceramic collection on the second floor offers a comprehensive view of Chinese ceramics, including valuable porcelain ranging in date from the Tang period to the Compagnie des Indes. On this floor, too, Korea is represented by small bronzes and Japan by theater masks, jewellery and painting (notably a 16th century screen depicting the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan).

Hotel Heidenbach

In the Hôtel Heidenbach (19 Avenue d'Iéna) in Paris is an annex to the Musée Guimet, with the Galeries du Panthéon Bouddhique du Japon et de la Chine, installed here in 1991. They contain some 300 Asian works of art, 250 of them from Japan alone (including figures of Buddha of the sixth-15th centuries and 23 copies of statues in the Toji Temple, Kyoto).